Fully Devised Midnight
by Larania47
Summary: Following the events of My Bloody Valentine, 5x14: Sam and Dean are headed towards defeating the ultimate evil but at the same time their tattered lives and pasts may interrupt their means to a brighter future when one phone call changes everything.
1. Something in the air

He gripped the wheel so tightly his knuckles were beginning to turn white as the impala's engine roared through the small town of Fillmore Utah. He hadn't spoken anything more than a sentence to Sam since Sam's second visit to the demon proof room in Bobby's basement and he wasn't planning on it, especially after his latest breakdown.

Dean felt like the only person he had to talk to lately was Castiel and even that was hard because Cas didn't understand half the things Dean was saying. The words that came out of Dean's mouth were like the gurgling of an infant to Cas at times and he made it all too clear to Dean when he was confused which was more than Dean Winchester could stand.

Dean looked over at Sam who was staring out the window with tired eyes, he hadn't dared to say anything, neither had Dean.

"Dea…" Sam said quietly, almost as if the word was hard to get out but Dean quickly cut him off.

"Don't… just don't Sam."

Sam bit his lip knowing Dean was serious about this, especially since he called him Sam and not Sammy.

Looking over at Dean, his eyes pained and droopy he sighed "Dean I was under the influence of…"

"I don't want to hear it Sammy, I know what it wasn't, doesn't mean I like it." He said clicking his tongue against his teeth.

Sam nearly whimpered, it was barely audible but he knew he did it; he just wanted things to be okay again. "Dean I couldn't control myself, I didn't mean to do it, any of it." He was talking about the bigger picture now.

Sighing Dean kept his eyes on the road, the one long road that felt like it had been going forever. "You never do…look Sam, seriously, can we not? I'm sick of it, of all of it. I don't want to talk. I want to drive to this place, get it over with and keep doing the same thing, hunting, what I'm good at. What I don't want to do is this touchy feely soul saving crap, I'm done. Been done, nothing's changed."

"Nothing?" Sam asked looking at the road that Dean's deep green eyes were transfixed upon.

"Nothing" Muttered his brother as he drove along the road.

The path was paved with anything but good intentions.

Pulling into town, the sun shone through the windows of the impala making Sam and Dean squint collectively, their hands shielding their eyes from the harsh rays of the overbearing sun.

"Dean what are we doing here anyway?" Sam asked shuffling to the trunk of the car grabbing his duffel bag as they made their way into the doors of the Capital motel. "I mean this doesn't feel like our kind of job."

Dean smirked looking over his shoulder as he watched his brother struggle with the bags, a strap caught on something else in the trunk. "Ah do you know why they call this place the Capital Motel? Because it's top of the line…"

"Dean." Sam growled wanting to get back on track with the subject on hand.

"This is our kind of job, trust me… it sounds creepy I'm down, it's low key, I'm there." He said grabbing his back from the trunk, his body placed next to Sam's taller frame.

Sam paused leaned on the bumper of the car "I mean why did you take it, with everything going on?"

Dean crossed his arms, bags not yet in hand "Look its normal and that's what I need right now something normal or next to normal and Cas told me about it, said we should at least look into it and that's what we're doing. Cool?" He asked grabbing his heavy luggage.

Sam nodded "Yeah, fine, whatever and at least we're not far from Bobby in case something else happens…"

Dean nodded letting his brother follow him as he walked into the motel that was anything but top of the line, a smell of sour pickles near the entrance.

"Whew! Can you smell that fresh air!?" Dean asked his younger brother as he opened the door. "Smells like home."


	2. Telephone

She pulled the curtains close as she waited for Curtis to call; he was late to call AGAIN. Having a long distance relationship sucked, she was always getting put second over everything and she hated it. Sitting in the dark she grabbed a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and swirled the spoon around in the container. She always told herself she would not sink to this level, sitting in the dark and waiting for a call but she was really lonely, her new apartment looked so empty, everything still in boxes.

Grabbing her stuffed panda she sat him in her lap, the ice cream at her side melting slowly.

"You still love me don't you Tedda?" She asked her bear worn from time. She too felt worn from time, worn from waiting.

Sitting patiently she heard sirens from out the window and held her legs in her arms as she sat on her bed, the ice cream still melting from the heat she had on in the tiny house. Realizing she was through with the ice cream she went to the fridge to put it away.

Walking through the dark was bad enough but to be alone, alone for the first time since college had ended, that was the final straw. She was shaky and on edge and missing everything and everyone, not a great combination.

Hopping back on her bed she sat in silence about to reach for the remote when she was surprised by the ring of the house phone she swore she hadn't plugged back in yet, she hadn't even told Curtis her new number, he only had her cell.

Gasping she felt a shiver jolt through her body as she nearly jumped off the bed, the springs of the mattress squeaking from the results of her being frightened. Sighing a breath of relief she made her way to the little beige telephone in the corner of the room.

Picking it up she answered "Hello?"

On the other end was a distorted voice, the line cracking so she couldn't make out the words.

"Hello?" She asked again, voice quivering as she waited for an answer.

"John?" Said the distorted voice.

The petite brunette leaned against the wall "Umm no there's no John here, you've reached…."

"John, John John, John…" It repeated it's mantra.

"No, no John here, I, I just moved in, I think you have the wrong number." She said calmly as she looked around the room.

"John, John, John, John, John, John." The voice echoed and with that she hung up the phone.

"Weirdos…"

* * *

Sam looked over at his brother who was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, the sound of the water forceful and powerful, no doubt a waste. He pretended to thumb through the papers Dean had printed out from online but he had other things on his mind. For once he was not thinking about the case or research. "Dean?"

"Yeah?" He called out with his mouth full of toothpaste. Spitting it in the sink he rolled up his sleeves and wiped his mouth on a hanging towel. "What?"

"Dean can we talk?" Sam asked sighing as he watched Dean take a seat across from him.

"Can we talk about what Sammy, there's nothing to talk about…" he barked.

"Yeah there is." Sam shot back.

"Yeah well its nothing I feel like talking about, I thought I told you no chick flick moments…ever." He said running a hand through his hair that was slightly ruffled from the drive and the rain that seemed to turn on and off throughout the day.

"It's not healthy." Sam said playing with the frayed edges of his off white pillow.

Dean chuckled "Dude you want healthy? Eat a salad, look there's nothing to talk about, we're fine… did you look at the stuff I gave you?"

Sam's eyes begged, they nearly did the talking for him, full with guilt. "Dean…what I did…"

"Is over. Let's move on, been through this dance more than once, getting used to it." He said grabbing back the papers looking over them himself, pretending to be deep in research.

"Dean I don't, that's not who I am…" He said watching his brother with a careful eye.

"Yeah not who, what, it's what you are, an addict and I'm trying to deal with that right now the best way I can… what you think it wasn't hard for me to see you like that, again? Of course it was hard but I don't want to pine on it again and again Sammy, I can't do it man. I need this." He said shaking the paper in his hand.

"I need to research the death of Lindsay McAdams , Tommy Broilyn, and Avery Sussek, alright. Something's up and you being research boy wonder are gonna look into it. I'm taking a shower; I expect a full report when I get out."

"Yes sir." Sam said saluting him with a little growl of disapproval. Dean was quickly turning into John Winchester, making Sam his trained soldier and Sam didn't like it, but he would listen for now.

Hearing the water running Sam looked through the papers and went online on his new laptop to look for information about the victims, see if there was a connection. The only connection there was was that they were all from Fillmore Utah. "Damn." Sam Winchester muttered under his breath as he approached the bathroom door.

Knocking on the door Sam waited for an answer. Dean quickly did "Dude if you have to pee, you're gonna have to wait, I'm almost out and the doors locked, I'm not unlocking it." He stated.

Sam shook his head "No it's not that, it's just there are no connections, it feels like just random deaths to me. They weren't even killed the same ways. Lindsay was electrocuted, Tommy fell down a flight of stairs and Avery fell in the shower and drowned of all things."

"I'll be out in a minute." Dean growled wishing he could have a few minutes of peace to himself but that wasn't possible. Even when he slept peace did not come.

* * *

"What do yah got?" Dean asked plopping on the bed in pajama pants and a white t-shirt, the article of clothing that was usually under all those layers he wore during the day.

"I don't understand why Castiel had us look into this; it's got nothing to do with us, no red flags." Sam stated putting the papers down. "Total dead end."

Dean sighed picking the sheets of white back up "Well we must have missed something, or we're not seeing something. Cas wouldn't say something was here if it wasn't."

Sam groaned "Well then call Cas or whatever and tell him to get his ass here and help us out because I'm not seeing anything supernatural here."

Putting his hands to his head Dean nodded "Yeah Yeah…I just don't want to bother the guy, he's having a hard time dealing with things."

Sam almost laughed "And we aren't, look Dean but I think your angel buddy failed us on this one…Ever think maybe he led us to this dead end to distract us?"

"Distract us, distract us from what?" Dean asked looking at his brother with a steady yet uneasy glare.

Sam shrugged "From what's really going on."

Dean crossed his arms frowning "What's REALLY going on Sam?" He asked.

"Umm the apocalypse, end of world, Lucifer… did you just get hit by the crazy train?" Sam asked pacing around the room.

Dean threw his hands up "Nah but good song… look SOMETHING is going on in this town, we just have to find out what. God I sound like you, I hate it when I sound like you. I'm hungry, I'm going to go get a bite to eat, you want something?" He asked rising to his feet, grabbing jeans to change into.

Sam quickly shook his head enveloped in his own thoughts.

Dean spoke fast as he threw his jeans on over his pajama pants "Look, I'm gonna go get you a grilled chicken salad okay, we'll talk later Sammy…"

Sam nodded watching the door slam and felt his body relax momentarily as he flopped on the bed laying in the dim light of the motel room. He stayed there until

Brrring… Brrrring… Brrrring….

The phone rang.


	3. Distortion

Chapter 3

Getting up from the bed he had just laid down in Sam found himself confused, in all the years they had been on the road he couldn't remember getting a call from the phone in the seedy motel room. Picking it up he listened for a voice but found none, only static.

"Hello?" He asked it, waiting for an answer.

Hearing a distorted voice say the name John over and over again Sam put a finger to his furrowed brow "No uhh I think you have the wrong number, sorry." He said hanging up with a tiny scoff as he laid back down on the stiff mattress.

"Hmmm." He mumbled before falling asleep.

* * *

Walking back from the diner up the road Dean watched the light snow fall around him, making his hair damp and his nose cold and red. Getting back to the motel he unlocked the door placing the bags down on the round table, the bed room empty. "Sam?"

No answer. Looking around Dean frowned "Sam? Sammy?"

Knocking on the bathroom door he waited for an answer but no sounds were heard. "Sam I'm coming in." He said nearly knocking the door down, the wood bending in his wake.

His eyes looked down to find Sam on the floor, white as a ghost, wrists slashed open, the blood filling the cracks in the tiles. "Sammy! Shit, Sam what did you do?" He asked as he fell to his knees grabbing towels placing them around Sam's wrists. He desperately tried to wake him up. Next to Sam was a piece of broken glass.

"Come on Sammy… don't you leave me." He said smacking his face lightly as he grabbed his phone dialing for Cas.

"Cas! Cas I need you now…" He yelled into the phone, an echo bouncing off the walls.

Castiel appeared behind him, trench coat swishing behind him. "Yes?" He asked before his voice went silent finding Sam on the floor. "Did he do this to himself?"

Dean sat Sam up. "Looks that way, help me get him outta here Cas, he needs to get to a hospital now."

Bringing them to the hospital Dean got Sam taken care of sitting with Cas in the waiting room, hands at his face. "This is my fault."

Cas shook his head "I highly doubt that Dean… you have been as supportive as you can possibly be to him given the circumstances."

Dean sighed "I should have done more Cas, he needed me and I let him down."

Castiel was about to speak but a doctor approached them, a man hunched over with dark rimmed glasses that were too small for his face. "Mr. Slade?"

Dean looked up, his reflection visible in the doctor's clear thick glasses. "Yes sir? Is my brother alright? Can I seem him?" He asked, the questions pouring out. Looking over at Castiel, Dean was not surprised to find him gone.

The doctor spoke in a low voice, as if he were in a crowded library "Your brother is still unconscious but we have him hooked up to IV bags and we're getting blood for him right away, you can sit with him for a bit."

Dean thanked the doctor and found his way to the room they were keeping Sam in. Finding Sam unconscious and wrapped in the harsh bright white bedding he put his hands to his mouth making a defeated sound as he looked at his brother. He didn't know how but Sam looked so tiny and fragile in that bed, he couldn't remember a time where he thought Sam looked innocent but today was the day.

Pulling up a chair Dean grabbed a newspaper and looked through it, there were more violent deaths in the area. He waited for Sam to wake up, water ready and at arm's length.

* * *

Sam's eyelids fluttered as he began to wake. Trying to move his body he heard a pained groan in the air, the air that smelled like sickness and death and realized it was his own. Turning his head to the side he made out Dean's figure letting his eyes adjust, of course it was Dean, Dean eating a bowl of green jello.

"Dean…" He said softly.

Dean's eyes snapped open, wide as if surprised. Moving his chair closer to Sam he put his hand on his shoulder. "Sam, are you okay? Let me go get the doctor. Dude what were you thinking?"

Sam sat up in bed, body sore, arms immobilized by the iv tubes attached to him. "What, what do you mean?"

Dean pointed to his arms "The whole killing yourself thing, sorry to be blunt but that's what you did."

Sam shook his head "What? No… Dean something did this to me."

Dean cocked his head "Wait, what? The doctors said…"

"Yeah well the doctors were wrong, it, it felt like some kind of malevolent spirit or something. I was about to pee and then wham out of nowhere this thing pushed me to the floor, I hit my head on the counter and before I knew it, I was bleeding and unconscious, I still really have to pee."

Dean chuckled softly. "We'll figure this out Sam, we always do."

Sam looked up at his older brother with wonder "That's optimistic of you."

Dean shrugged "What can I say? The jello does wonders for the soul."

Deep down he felt nothing, Dean was good at acting and he knew it. He wished to god he could just say how he was feeling but he couldn't, Sam needed positivity.

"Dean?" Sam muttered.

"Yeah Sam?" Asked Dean handing him a glass of water to which he sipped slowly through a bendy straw.

"Before the attack, I got a phone call, at first I couldn't tell who was calling, the voice was distorted but it kept repeating the name John over and over, I could hardly get a word in." Sam said slowly as if he was thinking while he spoke.

"Yeah and?" Dean asked crossing his arms.

Sam sighed looking into his brother eyes "And after a little while the voice got less distorted, I could hear who it was."

Dean put his hands on his thighs and moved forward now more curious than he would care to admit. "Well who was it Sammy?"

Sam sighed biting his lip "It was… it was mom…."


	4. The host

AUTHORS NOTE: So I guess it's time for an author's note, here at this place it seems like the trendy thing to do. Well the main thing I have to say is I have plans, just so you know in case it doesn't seem that way. I'm trying to develop the story at a pace where it's not as melodramatic as some fan fictions are. There will not be deaths in every chapter, there will not be pain inflicted upon people in every chapter, there will not be sex in every chapter. All of these wonderful things will be spread throughout in doses, healthy daily doses. We're at the beginning and baby it's gonna be a hell of a ride. Also sorry my story so far has been very dialogue friendly, I'm a screenwriter so it's gonna take me a while to get back into story writing mode but I'll get there in time. Here's ending the note on an Alias reference. "Truth takes time."

Looking into Sam's eyes as if he were trying to dig a hole in his soul and find his most embarrassing secrets, Dean cleared his throat, the sound filling the silent room.

"Come again?"

Sam sighed "Mom, the voice on the phone was moms."

Dean almost laughed "You're sure? You're sure it was moms and not just someone who sounded like mom?"

"Yes Dean I'm sure, it was mom looking for dad, her voice sounded so desperate, like she had been searching for him for years." He said swallowing hard.

Dean put his head in his hands for a moment before looking back up at Sam who was playing with the tubes in his arms "How is that even possible Sammy? When we last saw mom her soul was destroyed when she took on that poltergeist in our old home."

Sam shook his head "Well that's just it; we all assumed her soul had been destroyed because it was no longer in the house, but that doesn't mean we were right. Maybe her soul, her essence was just misplaced. That still doesn't explain though why people who get this phone call from mom are dying though, dying violent deaths. The thing that attacked me wasn't mom, it couldn't be." He mumbled.

Dean shifted his weight on his legs "Well then we gotta figure out what we're dealing with here."

Nodding Sam reached for the glass of water again, his throat suddenly as dry as the Sahara "And Dean?"

"Yeah Sam?"

"We gotta get mom back too, she's out there lost, and floating around looking for dad. Something's wrong and we need to make it right." Sam said hearing his stomach growl.

Sighing Dean sat back into the chair, his weight making the chair inch back at bit "Sammy how can we trust its mom? I mean what if it's a demon, it's happened before. What if it's just someone trying to trick us, to use us like they always do."

Sam shrugged "I just know I guess, it's like instinct that it's her, a feeling, a strong one."

Dean held out his hand "We can place a bet and shake on it."

Sam shook his head "Ummm yeah no thanks… Dean when can I get out of here?" He asked.

Dean looked around "Whenever the blood in that bag is done flowing that's when, and well I apparently am supposed to put you in a looney bin or something but I'll just call Cas and he'll get us out of here. He's like our own personal taxi."

Sam's eyebrow raised "Yeah Dean, don't say that when you talk to him, it's kind of offensive."

Dean snickered "Not like he'd understand it anyway."

* * *

A day later Sam and Dean sat in their new motel room, the décor made to look like a lodge, there was even a deer's head on the wall. Dean found it oddly comforting, he would even mumble things at it when he got up off the bed which wasn't too often. Dean didn't really leave the room, he kept himself busy with cleaning guns, restocking ammo, making lists of what needed to be bought and researching. Dean also kept John's journal close by, flipping through it every now and then, looking for new things, remembering the old.

Dean savored the old, reminiscing past hunts, past everything, an easier way of life. Flipping through the book he found an old picture of John and Mary from when Sam was just born. Although Sam wasn't in the picture he could clearly remember posing for it with them. His loving devoted parents looked so loving, so warm like if he touched them he would burst into flames from their care. Gripping the picture he realized he felt anger boiling under his skin, everything was rising to the surface. Deep down he hated them for leading this life and pulling him into it but then again how could he be mad at them he made his own choices and after all it was destiny, wasn't it?

Sam looked up from the papers he was holding trying to find a pattern "Dean what are you thinking over there? You are being way too quiet."

Dean chuckled softly "Don't worry about it Sammy."

Sam tucked the papers away "Dean…I think, I mean there's this spell that we can do where it puts people's souls into other people temporarily until we can house them elsewhere like…like wherever Dad is…"

Dean stretched, his neck elongated "Mmmm the spell's not gonna be easy I reckon?"

"Yeah well obviously it's not gonna be a piece of cake, and to make matters worse, the poltergeist that's been terrorizing these people is going to tag along which means both Mom and the poltergeist will be sharing the same host. If I can get them both into the same place though I can get the demon back to hell leaving mom as the active host until we can get her to where she belongs, finally." He said with confidence.

Sam suddenly thought of his father suffering in heaven or wherever he was without Mary and shivered, what a slap in the face that must be. John Winchester made it to heaven, escaped from hell to get to Mary and when he got there she wasn't even there, that must have been pure undiluted torture.

"We need to get her there." He murmured.

Dean nodded in agreement before pausing, stopping dead in his tracks "Sam you're not gonna use your powers again are you?"

Sam looked deeply at him, eyes empty but with a pained expression on his boyish face. "No Dean…I'm not."

Dean sighed a sigh of relief "Good. So do you know how to perform this ritual?"

Sam nodded "Enough, Bobby might be able to help but first we have to find a strong female host."

Dean interrupted "What like the bachelor?"

Sam cocked his head "What? No…well maybe, we just need a strong woman so she can handle it."

Dean raised a brow "So we need like a butchy feminist Rosie the Riveter chick?"

"I'm just surprised you know who Rosie the Riveter is." Sam muttered under his breath but Dean caught it.

"Dude I went to school, I'm not stupid, plus of course I remember, hot chick with bandana and tight blue jumpsuit… Count me in." He snorted.

Sam rolled his eyes "Well I was thinking more on the lines of hunters, we go to a few hunter bars, talk around, look for our own little heroine and convince her."

"Convince her to be a human vessel?" Dean said with a scoff "Yeah that's real sanitary, no one in their right mind is gonna say yes to that."

Sam smirked "Easy…so we find someone not in their right mind."

"Easy…Easy…" Dean said laughing. "Yeah sure…whatever man…you're ridiculous."

Sam nodded "Sensible, I'm being sensible."

Sighing Dean got up "Is there a hunter bar in Utah?"

Sam shook his head "No but there is one in Colorado."

Looking at the watch that seemed to be embedded into his arm, the strap holding the face of the clock in scraping against his flesh and pulling at the fine hair on his skin Dean flicked his tongue to the back of his teeth. "Grab your bags; we've got work to do."


	5. Peppermint

Authors note: I KNOW THIS ONE IS SHORTER THAN THE REST, OR MAYBE ITS NOT WHO KNOWS BUT IT FELT RIGHT TO END IT WHERE I DID BUT THAT MIGHT ALSO BE BECAUSE I WROTE IT AT ALMOST THREE IN THE MORNING. ENJOY.

* * *

An empty car, the seasoned smell of tobacco, a scattered family of rats or two, that was what Sam Winchester and his brother Dean had to look forward to in the parking lot of whatever hunter hideaway they landed at in the area but Sam was sure that there was one in Colorado. He thought back to himself and remembered visiting that place at one point in his life, he didn't know how old he was or if he was with just Dean or Dean and his father but he remembered the smell of it. Where in a bar it was expected to smell of hard liquor and stale peanuts this one smelled like peppermint, so strong that it smelled like Christmas, a winter wonderland. Sam remembered being in one of his psychology classes' freshman year and learning about how the brain processed smells, sense memory or something like that, this bar was that kind of place.

Driving on the road Dean hummed along to a Metallica song as he thought about all the hunters, he was kind of bummed that all the women hunters he had met so far hadn't been his type because he was hankering for a little female companionship. Sam kept reminding him on the car ride that they were looking for a host to put their mother in momentarily not a sex partner but Dean wouldn't listen, he was on his own mission.

The air smelled like candy canes which is how Sam knew they were getting close, like really close. Telling Dean to step on the brakes they pulled into the lot of a bar that looked like an old fashioned saloon from the outside, the little hut made from logs almost as if someone had built it from scratch, and maybe they did. Stepping out of the glistening impala, the car slightly wet from the light drizzle Sam left his things in the car while Dean strapped a butterfly knife to his belt just in case, the man liked to take precautions. Following Dean into the bar Sam watched him take the scene in as he did as well, his nostrils flaring as he took in the sweet scent knowing this indeed was the hunter bar from his past. He saw a few women drinking, playing darts and talking about hunts with burley men and smiled slightly. Pickings were slim but he hoped to find someone, anyone willing to take on the task.

Dean eyed the women like vultures and licked his lips finding one or two that were decent, Sam approached him nudging his shoulder lightly. "Dean wipe that grin off your face, you look like a fat kid who just got a box of chocolates and wants to eat them all at once."

Dean chuckled "Well maybe I do…"

Sam made a face as he let his eyes make a walkthrough the bar "Really?"

Dean shook his head not satisfied "No, not really…this place is a bust."

"Yeah for getting laid, we're not here for that Dean." He muttered sitting down at the bar.

Looking over he saw a woman walk out from the back room. The woman was almost as tall as Dean with sparking blue eyes, eyes rimmed with emerald green eyeliner and full lips that had a seductive curve to them, she looked like a mystery. Her hair reached just above her ass, her hair the shade of medium ash brown if you were to look on a hair dye box but hers was all natural as were her full breasts that Dean's focus had immediately gone to. Admiring her from afar Dean watched Sam order drinks but kept his gaze on this woman who sashayed over to the bar ordering a shot of tequila along with a glass of whiskey. Taking out her knife this little beauty slammed her hand on the table spreading her fingers before playing a game with the knife, slipping the knife between her fingers fast.

Watching the neat trick Dean's eyes widened watching the determination in her eyes, her gaze never averting from the silver of the knife. Dean nudged Sam's shoulder and made him look over at the girl. "I'd say we found someone not in their right mind."

Sam watched her go and shrugged "Seems fine to me, I mean she seems to like to live dangerously but we're hunters. That's kind of in the job description."

The girl suddenly stopped before doing it hyper speed this time nicking her finger. Dropping the knife on the bar she looked at her finger watching the blood run down her hand. Sam was about to help her but Dean pulled him back watching her intently.

The woman darted her tongue out and licked the stream of blood off her finger taking it into her mouth to heal herself, instead of looking to be in pain she genuinely looked to be having a good time. Dean's eyes averted back to Sam and Sam shrugged "Yeah guess she'll work."

Dean nodded watching the woman put the knife back into her scuffed brown combat boots, his eyes following her hand as it slid down her leg, the jeans she wore clinging to every curve.

Sam snapped his fingers to get Dean's attention "Earth to Dean."

Dean looked back at his brother "Huh, what?"

Sam chuckled "You found the crazy blood thing erotic didn't you?"

Dean scoffed "Erotic, big words Anne Rice, how about fucking hot."

Walking away Sam left Dean to his own devices hoping he would talk to the woman and talk to her about being the host instead of just asking for her number or trying to charm her into sleeping with him. Sam watched Dean from across the room but was surprised to find him posed like a statue completely still like a trained dog who was just told to stay.

Sam walked over to his brother and crossed his arms against his muscled chest "Dean, are you going to make your move or what?"

Dean looked over at his brother "I will….I will…when I can walk again without making a fool outta myself."

Sam made a disgusted face not even wanting to address it "I'll go talk to her…"


	6. Blue

AUTHORS NOTE: I KNOW THIS ONE IS SHORT, OR AT LEAST LOOKING AT IT IN THIS FORM I AM CURRENTLY TYPING IT ON IT LOOKS SHORT BUT THAT'S BECAUSE I LIKE TO END EACH CHAPTER ON A CERTAIN NOTE. NOW I AM SURE I KNOW WHERE I AM GOING ITS JUST HOW DO I WANT TO DO IT, METHINKS A SERIES OF FLASHBACKS MIGHT BE FUN OR MAYBE EVEN SOME EXPERIMENTAL DREAM/NIGHTMARE MONTAGES. MAYBE EVEN BOTH, PREPARE.

Her nails were an electric blue and they were the brightest thing in the entire bar except for the bright balls on the pool table that was a navy blue. Dancing to a beat that played in the back of the bar on the jukebox that happened to light up the mysterious woman who must have been a hunter moved her hips in a way that would make any man blush. Sam approached the woman and she stopped dancing as he moved towards her. He came her way and her eyes fastened on his tall frame, almost as if she knew what was coming.

"Beg pardon?" Sam asked tapping her shoulder.

She didn't need to turn around since she was looking at him the whole time but she found it funny that he was trying to be such a gentleman at a hunter's paradise. Putting her hand on her hip she let her eyes dance over his body from the feet to his head, to the outsider it looked like she was undressing him with her eyes but she was just known for being observant. She could tell right away he was educated and she could tell he liked to live healthy which was ironic for a hunter whose lives were always in danger. She felt the blood rush to her head, a feeling coming over her like he was familiar but nearly laughed at the thought, who was she kidding? She didn't know anybody, hell she hardly knew herself anymore.

Sam cleared his throat and she extended a hand waiting for him to take it and he did, shaking it rather awkwardly. "Something you need?" She asked, brain wavering for a moment trying to remember how to be polite.

Sam let go of her hand and pulled away "I'm Sam Winchester, and that's my brother Dean over there and we're kind of having a situation. I was going to come over here and lie to you, make up some fabrication to get you to help us but I pegged you for being smarter than most of the people in here and figured I should try the truth, it's something my brother has been trying to get me to do for a while."

The girl scoffed "What is this alcoholics anonymous?"

Sam shook his head, a tiny smile emerging on his lips. "Not exactly."

Pulling him close to her she began to dance again, grinding up on him to the music she couldn't recognize. He didn't move but she pressed her lips to his neck making him shiver "Who do you think I am, and what do you take me for? You tell me exactly what you want in ten seconds or less or your face goes through this pool table…" She whispered, somehow able to make sexy, scary.

He tried to move but she kept her grip on him making Dean jealous from across the room. He tried to speak but she silenced him with her knee hitting his crotch "Also let me add on to this… you say something I don't like, you're gonna be singing like a fucking canary."

Sam pulled back looking into her jaded eyes, he had never seen someone take such offense to just being talked to and he had never seen someone with such rage and fire who wasn't a demon. "I need your body as a host for my dead mother." He blurted out.

The girl pulled away letting him go, looking into his eyes for any sense of him deceiving her but there was none there, only the most honest eyes she had ever seen on a man.

"You're not lying… wait, come again? A what?!" She asked putting her arms down, the fists that were once clenched relaxing along with her whole demeanor.

Sam sighed "My mother died when I was six months old in a fire, but it wasn't an ordinary fire, it was a fire caused by a demon. A few years ago my brother and I worked a case that took place in our old home in Lawrence Kansas and there was a poltergeist in the house along with the spirit of my mother. In order to protect us my mother fought off the thing and left the house. We thought after all these years that her soul was erased from this plain and every other but we recently found out that it wasn't canceled out, that both of the souls were lost. We want to get our mom to where she belongs and this thing to where it belongs but we need a vessel to do it."

The woman took a deep breath; it was after all a lot to take in. "And you want me to be this vessel thing?" She asked with curiosity flooding her eyes.

Sam nodded "Well…yeah… I mean if it's not too much."

The girl scoffed, her free hand going up to her face as if she were covering a laugh or a cheeky smile "Let me get this straight, you want me to be the vessel for your mother and this thing and you don't even ask my name first… Seems kind of tacky to me."

Sam blushed "Ah shit, sorry. It's just with you threatening to castrate me guess it kind of slipped my mind."

"I'm Vanessa, Vanessa Drake." She said as her body leaned against the pool table, hands in the deep pockets of her worn leather jacket, the only piece of fabric that was loose on her body. From across the room Dean wondered why she was wearing a dark turtleneck but quickly remembered that he was jealous of Sam and how they got up close and personal. He would have loved to have been in Sam's position, he was sure of that.

Sam pressed a hand to his lips, letting the roughness of his fingers collide with the soft confines of his mouth "So since you told me your name does that mean you're going to help us?"

Vanessa paused and looked around the room, the corner of her eye catching a dark spot in the room. "What? Oh yes… Whatever, no skin off my teeth."

Sam almost smiled glad that they had found someone to take on such a major role. Even though she did not know it and didn't really seem to care, she was doing them a big favor, one that would not be forgotten. Looking over at his brother who took a shot of something amber colored at the bar Sam motioned to her making her uncomfortable, her body slightly tightening up again. "So let me just introduce you to my brother."

She pulled back, her body stiff and her mind out of the bar "I don't really want to meet your brother at the moment actually…see he doesn't interest me, you don't interest me. What interests me is hunting, what interests me is helping people. I don't want a connection I just want redemption."

Sam looked at her deeply eyes in a tango with the way she was acting her ups and downs. "Redemption for what?" He asked with a twinge of desperation in his voice. The determination in her voice made him all the more curious.

Watching the shadows on the wall grow, Vanessa held her head in her hands. "I have to go…" Rushing over to the bar she found a napkin and pen and scribbled down her number furiously before handing it to him. "Call me if, when you need me." She said making her exit of the bar and into the darkness leaving him with the lonely piece of paper.

Making his way back over to Dean, Sam shuffled as he read the number on the card, he knew something was off about her but he couldn't quite pin it down. He tried to make his head already riddled with questions and thoughts to calm down but could not get this mysterious woman, Vanessa out of his head. Dean spoke but the words that escaped from his lips were just a blur to Sam, the words slowing and mixing together, everything not really there as it was being played through a recorder in a tunnel. Staring at the number the words finally came back to him and he could make out what Dean was saying, all he really wanted to know was this woman's name and Sam would tell it to him.

"Vanessa Drake."


	7. Possession

The correct definition of "nightmare" is a dream arousing, fear, horror and distress but what they don't tell you, what is unclear is how vivid those nightmares can really be, especially if they are from the memory. The room is red, the heat is blazing and burns appear on the flesh and join old scars. These are the memories of someone whose pinky toe collided with hell, a taste on your tongue of what is to come but think about the ones whom survived it, what do they dream at night?

Slashes from rusty knives embed in the skin and a looming shadow creeps like ivy across the walls, where is it going, what does it want?

"Is it through with me? How much more can I take?"

There are no doubts that this place is hell, it is obvious, apparently so. The walls are charred black from the smoke, what smoke we do not know. Scratches on the walls are blatantly visible; many have tried to escape the misery and devastation wreaked upon their bodies day after day after day but none have succeeded. There is no door to escape a place like this, there is no exit sign flashing red like in the movie theaters, there is no life after this moment.

"Please stop."

Voices disappear in this vortex of time and space, they echo along the walls but no pleas, no amount of begging is heard or taken into consideration. Words flick off tongues but it is vile to the people in command, the big leaders, the men with the armory. Anything you say is something they will laugh about later and everything they say hurts, stings like a million wasps hitting the body's surface.

"Let me go!"

Begging is beauty down there and pain and suffering is perfection. They ask again…

"We can take you off the rack but you know what you would have to do."

There is no answer yet again; it has felt like forever since there has been a word spoken, a yes or a no. There is begging and pleading but nothing concluding a decision which only means more torture. The demons have no problem with that; they have no problem dealing out punishments. They revel in it.

Blood squirts from open wounds, pus mixes with a yellow unrecognizable fluid, bruises stain the bodies like colors on a canvas and tears rain from the eyes of the prisoners, this is not the place one wants to be.

So the prisoner wakes up from the dream and falls back into reality, turning the memories into little white spaces, gaps that can be pushed into the back of the brain until night falls again.

* * *

Dean sat with Sam in a diner, the smell of scrambled eggs fill the air and making the hairs in his nose tingle, he's starved. It was a long night of research and phone calls with Bobby trying to prepare everything. Sam hadn't said a word to Dean about this woman, about Vanessa until he made his decision, would he choose her or not. Was she the perfect vessel? Sam shuddered thinking about the word vessel, he knew he was a vessel for Lucifer and Dean knew he was the vessel for the archangel Michael, the only problem was how did it get to that point? Destiny, decided from birth or a wrong decision?

"So this chick's a real bitch huh?" He asked biting into his piece of toast, a light film of jelly covering the topside.

Sam shrugged "I wouldn't say a bitch, I'd say defensive or on edge but bitchy not so much. Feel like bitchy is the word you use to describe…"

"Alright Webster's, I don't need a definition, I'm just saying…is she the one? I mean, I hate using that damn word, chosen or whatever. Is she going to help us?" Dean asked cutting him off as he finished off his orange juice, the pulp leaving little bits and pieces in the glass.

Sam nodded with a deep sigh, breath coming from his diaphragm "Yeah, she's the one… She's willing, she's a little off her rocker but she's willing. I'm not seeing any more options Dean."

Dean grumbled "Dude I know… I'm not arguing, I just want what's best for mom. So we're heading over to Bobby's right? He's got all that voodoo stuff we need right?"

Sam shifted his body weight so pressure landed on the heels of his feet, his chocolate covered sneakers against the tiled lime green linoleum. "He does, we really gotta get going, we keep stalling on everything Dean, time is a' wasting."

Dean scoffed "Dude who talks like that? Look I know we're stalling and people around us and around the world keep dying because of Lucifer because we messed up but we can't take too much on at once, we're only human."

Sam nodded "Any word from Castiel about what's going on with Lucifer or Satan or whatever the hell he goes by now?"

Dean shook his head "He pops in and every now and then but he never has anything of substance to say, just that whole end of the world speech we have heard a million times. Dude needs a new routine…"

Nodding in agreement Sam pressed a pen to his lips scribbling furiously on a note pad that he kept in his pocket "It works though, I'm nervous man, I keep thinking about what I did, the apocalypse happening because of me."

Dean cut him off quickly resisting the urge to slap a hand over his younger brother's mouth "Sammy not now okay? We're actually getting somewhere, we've got a case, we've got something we can actually do so let's do it." He said with a deep sigh that seemed to shake the room it was so loud.

Sam did the same looking around the four walls of the diner "Okay so let's do this thing."

Getting up from their table they threw the money down on the surface, grabbing their bags and walking out the door in a confident manner, something not normal for the morning. Sam dialed a number, the same number he had taken off the napkin the night before and waited for a female voice to answer. A scratchy voice answered on the other line.

"Hello?" It asked.

Sam smiled softly "Vanessa, its Sam…I was uhh wondering if you could meet up with us, we'd like to do that thing as soon as possible. We're in Fillmore at the Black Square diner; can you meet us out back?" He asked leaning against the impala ignoring Dean's watchful eye.

He heard the phone go dead and sighed hoping he got the message across but she was a hard egg to crack, hard boiled.

Dean followed Sam's mannerisms and leaned against his car looking up into the sun, the feeling blinding his eyes but somehow making him feel hopeful but that all changed when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey there Deano."

Dean and Sam turned around only to come face to face with Meg who stood tall, a beaten and bloody Cas standing limp in her arms, she held him up by the collar of his trench coat. "Miss me?"

Cas's eye was swollen shut and blood droplets dribbled down his mouth, his clothes were dirty and he hung there too tired to do anything, she had him right where she wanted him.

"I've been keeping an eye on your angel friend, this son of a bitch burned me so…I burned him… poor guy just doesn't know how to take a punch." She said with a snarky smile, the grin creeping along her face like poison ivy embroidered across a fence.

Dean growled, a guttural sound rising up from the pit of his belly "Let him go Meg, he's got nothing to do with this."

Meg laughed, snorted actually "Baby, he's got everything to do with this… you boys are a rollercoaster I tell yah, and this little cutie pie is along for the ride."

Sam put a finger up waving it in front of her smiling face "Meg get out of here…just go."

Meg chuckled pressing a hand to her lips to keep from bursting into hysterics "Not very convincing, mmm I'm shaking in my boots. Do you think I'm scared of you three stooges?…" She said traipsing around with Cas in her grip like a possession.

From behind her Vanessa stood with a metal pole tattooed with Latin lettering on it "Well guess who you should be scared of bitch?" She asked ramming the pole into her skull, the metal obliterating her face.

"Me…."


	8. Soiled

AUTHOR'S NOTE/ IF YOU ARE CONFUSED, WELL YOU SHOULD BE. ALL YOUR QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED, PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THE WORDS USED, EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS FOR SOMETHING. SOME SONG LYRICS FROM LADY GAGA ARE LATER USED IN THIS CHAPTER, DON'T SUE ME OR WHATEVER, I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS WORKS. ALSO LET ME SAY THIS WORLD BELONG TO ERIC KRIPKE AND COMPANY, NOT ME ALTHOUGH WHAT A DREAM COME TRUE THAT WOULD BE. ENJOY AND REVIEW. MORE TO COME.

* * *

The air was silent and still the moments after Meg's lifeless body hit the ground, smoke spilling from her body, the demon traveling yet again. Castiel fell with her, not able to hold his own weight, his knees giving out. Dean and Sam didn't even know what to do until Vanessa let the metal bar drop to the ground with a loud clang sound. "How did you know she was a demon?" Dean asked getting over the shock. He was surprised he could even be surprised anymore.

Vanessa spoke slowly admiring her handy work, pieces of brain matter adorning the gravel "I parked in the front, came around saw her eyes were black and this poor little guy was beaten to a pulp so I did the math. Went back to the car got my stick and bing bang boom, I kabobed the bitch."

Sam knelt next to Cas turning him over on his back and he let out a small whimper, Vanessa looked down at him. "So who's the shrimp? He a detective or a lawyer or something?" She asked letting the pole dance between her fingers like a baton.

Sam looked up at her with kind eyes "He's an angel."

Vanessa's eyes immediately went wide "Excuse me, a what?"

Dean smirked knowing how he felt when he found out, the idea a huge shock to him "He's an angel. I mean come on, you're a hunter…with the things you see every day it shouldn't be so out of the blue…"

Vanessa nodded taking a deep breath and releasing trying to process it all "You know that demon I killed, well she's not really dead."

Dean put a hand to his mouth "Really?! Dude I know… things can never be that easy." He said with a sigh as he watched Sam sit Cas up on the ground.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Cas didn't know where he was or who he was with, he could feel himself going in and out of consciousness and he could feel this intense stinging behind his eyes. His head was throbbing and his pulse quickened like the banging of a drum. His body hurt, every inch sore, he did not know he could feel pain this way. He always thought as an angel that it would be easy to keep his guard up so he could not be easily defeated but his plan was thwarted when another angel attacked.

While he did not know who he has his theories, he imagined he was being tracked for quite some time and he knew he had lost. The angel whoever it was had given him to Meg as a play toy and she had done more damage than he would have liked.

Waking up his eyes fluttered and he vaguely heard the sound of Dean Winchester's voice, was this man his salvation or was he dreaming about being saved?

Feeling blood trickle down the side of his face he felt a warm cloth hit his flesh as he struggled to sit up but something kept him down, something that smelled like coconut and lavender.

Vanessa held Castiel's head in her lap as he lay sprawled across the leather interior that the back seat consisted of. The dead body of Meg's last host was in the trunk of the impala stuffed between weapons and duffel bags. They could already begin to smell the dead flesh baking in the heat of the trunk.

"He looks so small." Vanessa murmured as she washed away the blood from his bruised face. She noticed he was trying to wake up and put her jacket under his head so he was in a better position. She pressed a water bottle to his dry, cracked lips and let him drink. He did not refuse.

Dean quickly glanced in the mirror at the two of them, Cas especially and sighed "So why are we going to this school or whatever?"

Vanessa watched Sam fiddle with something in his hands and spoke slowly "I told you, at my old high school which is like ten minutes away they have a good medical supply and there are no cameras so it's our best bet. Not my fault your first aid kit is crap and hospitals take forever .So we get in there and we get out. Why am I playing nurse again?" She asked looking at his eyes in the mirror.

"Because you're a woman." Dean said with a smirk as he looked at the directions she had quickly written down for him with fading ink from a pen they found in the back seat of the impala.

She scoffed and looked at Cas who was awake but quiet, he tried to speak but a raspy sound came out. Sam moved in his seat so he could see Cas "Cas who did this to you?" He asked quickly, his voice full of obvious concern.

Cas spoke, the words spilling from his mouth not sounding like his own "I do....not know…" He murmured slowly as he looked up into the blue eyes of this stranger. Her blue eyes matched his. He very much wanted to pull away from her, out of her grasp for he did not know who to trust or even Dean and Sam Winchester could trust her.

Sam realized he was uncomfortable and chuckled softly. "Cas this is Vanessa Drake, she's a friend."

Vanessa shrugged "Doing a favor, wouldn't call me a friend just yet sparky." She said as she watched the scenery change out the window realizing Dean had found his way to the school and was pulling into the back parking lot. "I'll grab the supplies; you two grab your shovels and get rid of the body. There are woods further back, do it there and dig deep." She said as she wiggled her body out from under Cas and lay him back.

Cas spoke softly "What should I do? I would like to be useful."

Sam smiled softly "You will be but right now you rest, you are no use to us if you're dead." He said as he opened the trunk to face the stench of ripe human flesh.

"Fanfuckingtastic." Mumbled Dean, who threw the body over his shoulder, shovel in his other hand.

* * *

Vanessa ran inside taking whatever she thought she might need as well as a flask of whiskey she remembered her principal had kept in his desk all those years ago. Walking past one of the classrooms she darted inside running her finger along the chalkboard leaving fingerprints. Sighing she looked at the floor, the tiles looking like they hadn't been clean since she had gone to school there. "There's been dust laying here for 12 years or more, almost as if it's never been cleaned. Some things just take too long to clean I guess." She muttered to herself staring almost longingly out the window and into the courtyard where her eyes fixated on a singular tree that once had life to it but was now lifeless and bland. She stared at that tree and wished she could chop it down.

Regaining focus she moved her body back to the impala and began to treat Cas who was doubled over in pain, ribs probably cracked or worse. She felt maternal and it made her sick but she carried on working for the good of the team. Team. Is that what she was calling the group of them together? A Team? She hardly knew them and they hardly knew her, they knew names and that was about it. They were all very secretive and would not divulge unless asked and she was just fine with that.

* * *

Dean dug deep, his arms hurt, straining to lift the weight of the soil that was enriched with roots so it made it even harder to tear into. The lifeless body of whomever Meg was occupying lay at the top of the dirt pile with Sam glancing looks at her every now and then. Dean called him out on it. "Would ya stop looking!?"

Sam helped his brother dig the hole and became defensive "What are you talking about?"

Dean looked over at Meg's broken and destroyed face and sighed "You keep looking at the…body and its weirding me out. You got a new fetish or something?" He asked stabbing the earth with the metal tool.

Sam shook his head "I wished we could have gotten Meg out of there in a respectable way, it's just, there was a girl in there."

Dean nodded "Casualty of war. Look Sam it sucks alright but if we worry about everybody that gets caught in the crossfire you know what? We lose. We die, and everything goes to shit even more than it is now. You think I'm happy how this is turning out? Our lives or lack of them? No, but this is what it is and we can't fight what we are anymore even if we'd like to. Do you know how many times I've wanted to run away and never look back? Let me tell you it's more than I can count, but I don't do it. Why don't I Sammy? What keeps me here? How am I still going?"

Sam bit his lip and kept digging, for once he was left speechless.

* * *

"And I know that it's complicated  
But I'm a loser in love  
So baby raise a glass to mend  
All the broken hearts  
Of all my wrecked up friends

I'll never talk again  
Oh boy you've left me speechless  
You've left me speechless so speechless"

Morgana Smith sat in her living room at her grand piano and sang the words of Lady Gaga's "Speechless" as she rewarded herself with a glass of red wine. Hearing the phone ring her body jerked upright and she made her way to the phone grabbing it in her scrawny pale hands "Hello?" She asked catching her breath but the voice on the other end only made her lose it once again.

"John? John? John? John? John? John? John?"

This was just the beginning more people were going to die, more people were going to suffer and everything was going to hell piece by piece and Sam and Dean Winchester were to blame. They didn't pray before, but they prayed now.

The crumbled body of Morgana Smith lay in her pool of blood, the color matching the bottle of red wine on her lacquer dresser and a stream of crimson covered the beige rug.

Amen.


	9. Splinters

**Chapter Nine**

Trees bent with the wind and seemed to kneel down to the ground as if they were kissing it as Sam and Dean finished burying the body of Meg's host. Walking back to the car in silence they braved the wind and rain that began to fall watching the female hunter in the car patch up Castiel who was now in an upright seated position, blue eyes open and fixated on something in the car. Maybe it was the lemon air freshener Sam had hung up to mask the smell of a human corpse but it wasn't clear from where the two boys stood.

Getting back in the car Vanessa handed Dean a box of crackers to which he immediately dug in, his hand traveling deep in the box pulling out wafers. She spoke softly with a smirk on her face "God you guys took forever, how long does it take to bury a dead body?"

Dean scoffed and turned his face to her "Well I could dig her up and you can see if you can do it faster."

Vanessa shook her head and remained quiet until Sam spoke up. "How's he doing?"

To which Cas gave Sam a glare and spoke "He is doing just fine. I am not dead Samuel, I am just recuperating. "

Dean laughed and started the engine on the car that was glistening from the rain pellets hitting the car at a side angle. "Never said there was gonna be a storm."

Cas looked out the window and watched the rain fall "There are never warnings to when a storm will come, but when they finally hit you must brace yourselves, you never know the outcome."

Vanessa put away the supplies and watched the lemon scented air freshener dangle in the air, swinging back and forth like a pendulum as the car began to move. She looked behind her to see the image of her school getting smaller and smaller and sighed, she had faced it, she had faced that nightmare and won. Although Dean and Sam did not know how big a deal stepping into that particular school was for her, she did.

Dean interrupted her quiet moment and his voice was like a megaphone in her head "You really want to do this?" He asked Vanessa as he looked at her through the mirror.

Vanessa looked over at him and Sam "I don't know you and I'm not sure I want to but what I do want to do is help, make something of myself. Make something have meaning so yes I'm doing it. I'm not backing down or running away so you could stop freaking out. I'm not leaving." She said tapping her fingers to the glass, following the rain drops as they drizzled down.

"Okay." Dean answered simply. Something in this woman seemed so real and honest but he knew she was keeping things from them as they were keeping things from her but it didn't matter because right now all that mattered was the mission.

* * *

"So you're Vanessa Drake." Bobby said as he inspected the girl from her boot clad feet to her black military styled turtleneck with his arms crossed as the boys placed Castiel gently on the couch crowded with pillows and books. "Well it's a good thing you came, because from what Sam and Dean tell me we're gonna need you."

Vanessa nodded "What can I say? I love being the solution to desperation." She said circling him like a vulture looking at its prey. "So you're a hunter? What happened?" She said admiring the metallic frame that held up his body.

Bobby looked into his lap and spoke "Guess you can say I got into a bit of a scuffle…"

Vanessa could tell he didn't want to talk about his condition so she kindly dropped the subject. "Hunting leaves its marks on all of us, mine you just can't see." She said letting her body stop its movements giving Bobby's neck a rest as he followed her actions with his wandering eyes.

Taking a deep breath she sat on the edge of the couch taking a book in her hands and thumbing through it page by page. Dean looked at her as he moved across the room to take a look at the spell that would trap Mary's soul and the poltergeist inside of Vanessa. "Bobby this doesn't look too kosher."

Bobby turned his chair to face Dean "What have I been telling yah you idjit."

Dean nodded "I know it's just this seems like some creepy ass voodoo shit. Didn't know how far this was gonna go."

Sam looked over at Dean as he handed Cas an icepack "Yes you did you just don't want it to go that far because you're sick of everything. It has to go that far Dean, we don't have anything else."

Cas looked over at them "Yes you do… you have each other, you have friends like Bobby and other hunters and me. Use them to your advantage."

Dean nearly laughed, a snort exiting his visage "Yeah that's funny Cas, tell that to Ellen and Jo. Look what being our friend got them."

Vanessa turned her head to face Dean "Who are they?" She asked with curiosity, there was so much she didn't know.

Dean looked away and suddenly couldn't stand to be in that room, the last place Jo and Ellen were happy. "No one" He murmured exiting the room and slamming the door behind him.

Following Dean after a few silent seconds Vanessa followed him, opened the door slowly and saw his shadow from across the room, the figure of him masked by darkness as he sat on the window sill that was boarded up. Walking over to him slowly she searched his face for answers. "Can I sit?"

Dean barely looked up at her and nodded. "I'm not gonna stop you."

Vanessa looked through the cracks of the window with him, the two of them seeing the sun almost completely set, the trees still bending and the wind still howling. "I didn't mean to push."

Dean shook his head "You didn't, it's just… it's still a little fresh and every time I even so much as think of them it's like pouring salt into the wound and tossing vinegar on it." He said looking at her, face to face.

Vanessa nodded "I know what that's like, when something is fresh and you have a nightmare or something and everything starts to burn again just when you've gotten to this point of bearable numbness."

Dean raised a brow and lost himself in her eyes "What do you dream?" He asked listening to the wind scream.

"I don't." She said simply as she looked through the cracks once again.

* * *

Sam held the bowl of goat blood in his hand along with the human blood, dead man's blood. "This is extreme, so Bobby what exactly will be expected of Vanessa?"

Bobby wheeled himself over to Sam who was preparing everything. "Nothing, she's just a body. We put the two souls into her, we expel the poltergeist and send it to hell and then your mother will be the one thing left in her. You boys can talk to her and then we'll send her to your daddy right and proper."

Castiel interrupted as he looked at the two men "She is not just a body, she is a girl, a human being and she will be treated as one."

Cocking his head Dean walked back from the room, Vanessa following. "Cas, since when you the humanitarian?"

Castiel grew silent and closed his eyes trying to make himself busy with sleep or something like it not wanting to deal with the eldest Winchester.

"That's what I thought" murmured Dean with Vanessa at his side. Looking over at her he smiled softly "You will let me in on all your little secrets later right?" He asked as he sat her in a wooden chair.

Looking up at him she suddenly looked small compared to him, her body placed in a vulnerable state as Sam tied her to the chair. "Maybe… if you're a good boy."

Dean wasn't surprised when he felt his cock twitch in his pants and he smirked at her as he allowed that one moment of happiness or something that resembled it to take its place. Cas opened his eyes suddenly wanting to watch the whole shebang go down.

Mixing the goat's blood with the humans Bobby instructed Sam to paint a circle around Vanessa in the chair and then cut her and smear the blood into her. Hearing this, her eyes went wide. "So unsanitary."

Sam looked over at her, Castiel at the edge of his seat "Do you want to stop?"

Vanessa looked over at Dean "Dare me to keep going."

Dean didn't quite catch on "What?"

"Dare me!" She yelled "I never turn down a dare."

Dean knelt at her feet and cut her flesh making her hiss. "I dare you."

Nodding at him he smiled softly and his face became all business as he dabbed the blood into her wound.

Stepping out of the circle he heard Bobby and Sam chant different spells, one for each spirit and watched them in awe. He was no good at Latin.

Flipping her head like a switch, tossing her head back Vanessa screamed as her body arched into the air, her restraints nearly coming loose. Looking as if she was getting shocked my lightning she thrashed and screamed bloody murder until the room went silent and a flash of white bounced off all of the rooms in the house. Panting softly Vanessa or whatever was in Vanessa came to. "Release me!" it screamed.

"Sam put this motherfucker where it belongs." Dean said watching Sam already ready with his book in hand.

Watching the demon shake Sam struggled to send it to hell but could not seem to defeat it, It had a hell of a hold on Vanessa. Watching her body shift and settle in the wooden confines that made up the antique chair, Vanessa looked up at Sam and Dean.

"My boys, my sweet boys."

Dean felt his body go numb and he looked over at Sam who was probably feeling the same way. "Mom?" he asked.

"Boys." She said softly as she looked around the room, a stranger in the skin she was in.

"You're in danger."


	10. Kindred Spirit

**Chapter Ten**

Looking at the body of Vanessa Sam and Dean and Bobby could tell it was Mary by the warm eyes that Vanessa was now donning. Her eyes were always sharp before but now they were soft and kind, her mouth twisted into a warm smile. Sam bit his lip, his face contorted to look like that of a puppy and spoke.

"Mom?"He asked hoping everything went as planned.

Mary nodded and realized she was tied to a chair. "Sam, Dean, Bobby. It's me…Where am I?" She asked looking around the room that was covered in dust and filled from the floor to the ceiling with books.

Dean moved towards her like she was a God, a bit fearful and nervous as if one wrong move and he would be dead. He hesitated, not because he didn't believe it was her but because it really was his mother in there. Untying her slowly he let Bobby do the talking.

"You're in my house Mary, the boys found out you were still out there tied to that hell demon of a spirit and they made the choice to bring you here." He said with a smile. "You're safe."

Rubbing the arms that were not hers, skin tucked safely in a turtleneck she rose to her feet. "Bobby you're in a wheelchair. You poor thing." She said cupping his face gently, finding him to be surprised from a woman's gentle touch.

"Sammy." She said slowly as she watched the tears already start to come to his eyes.

"It's okay baby, I'm not mad at you. I've been keeping an eye on the two of you as best as I could these past years but then I got so lost. I know what getting lost feels like Sam." She said taking him in her arms, kissing the top of his head.

Watching Dean stand awkwardly behind Sam she pulled him close to her, hugging the two of her boys. "You boys are doing the best you can, this burden shouldn't be on your shoulders but it is and I am sorry for that. I also can't begin to tell you how sorry I am about your father's death, I was there with him when he died but I couldn't follow him."

Dean gripped his mother by the shoulders softly "We brought you here to get you to dad, he's gonna want to see you."

Mary nodded "I want to see him too, oh god do I want to see your father. Gonna beat that man's ass, didn't want you two boys to be raised as a hunter like I was but I guess its fate right? Nothing I could have done to prevent any of this."

Dean shrugged "Well you could have never gotten married to dad and had us."

Mary shook her head "That's just silly talk Dean, marrying your father and having the two of you were the best things to happen to me. Maybe now we're in the middle of the apocalypse and I can tell the two of you are unhappy but look how many people you've saved."

Dean shook his head right back at her "Yeah but look at how many people are dying now."

Sam watched Dean riff back and forth with his mother in silence but his mother did not back down.

"Death is part of life, do you think if the two of you weren't born that someone else wouldn't have killed Lilith and this would have happened anyway? I know for a fact that it would have, this was meant to be but now it's up to you and others to put an end to it before it gets too out of hand."

Sam stepped forward keeping his eyes linked with hers "God?"He asked.

Mary shook her head "I do not know who exactly can help you Sam but I do know there is hope because out there, my soul floating around in the universe, I felt it."

"Boys I am so proud of you, all of you. Who is this?" She asked about Castiel and he tried to stand up to introduce himself but found himself whimpering in pain unable to do much moving.

"I am Castiel, I am a soldier of the lord." He said from across the room over at the worn couch.

Looking at him like he had two heads Dean laughed softly "He's an angel mom, he helps us."

Mary walked over to him and pat Cas's hand "Thank you then for taking care of my boys, you were the one to pull my Dean out of hell?" She asked watching him nod.

"Then I owe you one. You too Bobby, I am so grateful, I am sure John is as well." She said releasing Cas's hand and walking over to Bobby. "You sweet man, you do not deserve what has been done to you. I will pray for your recovery I can promise you that." She said as she stood in the middle of all the men.

"So what now?" She asked the group of men.

Dean smiled softly "I guess we get you where you need to be headed. Bout time, right?" He asked putting his hand on her arm.

Mary nodded looking down at her body "This is not my body, whose is it?" She asked inspecting herself.

"A friend's" said Sam as he watched her look in the mirror but she suddenly gasped looking away from herself. "Mom, what is it, what's wrong?"

Turning to Dean and Sam she pointed to her body "There's someone else in here with me."

Sam nodded "Yeah mom, her name's Vanessa Drake, it's her body."

Mary shook her head "No, there's someone else, someone deep down."

Dean looked over at Sam with confusion set on his face, clear as day. "What?"

"Someone else, three people in one body." She murmured sitting on the end of the couch trying to calm herself down. She was so confused and this wasn't helping."

Dean looked at Bobby "Bobby we saw the poltergeist go to hell, what's mom talking about?" He asked as if his feathers had been ruffled.

Bobby shrugged moving his chair over to Mary "I don't know Dean, maybe your friend Vanessa hasn't exactly been telling the truth about her lineage. Did you idjits even check to make sure she wasn't a demon?" He asked with an unwavering sigh.

Dean looked at Sam and Sam shrugged, Dean quickly followed. "Great" muttered the two boys at the same time.

Castiel turned his head to face Mary Winchester in the body of this so-called Vanessa Drake "We should get your mother where she belongs as quick as possible before anything else can go wrong."

Dean nodded helping her to her feet "Sam you know how to do that right?" He asked looking over at his little brother who was a few inches taller than him.

Sam nodded and grabbed an array of books. "This should be easier than the last. Whenever you're ready mom, I can do it." He said holding the book he needed to his chest. He didn't want to let go of her, it felt so soon and there were so many things he wanted to ask her but he knew he would never have the change to do so. Sam knew if he started with the questions he would never be able to stop and it would end in a breakdown and Dean calling him Samantha.

Mary looked at her two boys all grown up and handsome, Sam looking more like his father and Dean looking more like her. "Come here boys…" She said waiting for them to approach her.

They held her in her arms as if she were something sacred and squeezed softly "I love you boys so much; you two are my whole world. I'm so proud of you, and will always support you." She said looking up at them, Sam mostly. Watching their eyes fill with tears she wiped them away maternally as if they were still children.

"Shh it's okay to be alright. I believe in you two…I love you." She whispered as Sam began to chant the words and she felt her soul leaving the body of Vanessa.

"Good luck." She said with a smile and Dean crossed his arms, unsure of what to do with his body, his brain in such tangles.

Sighing he watched a bright light burst from Vanessa's body, the girl falling to the floor as Mary's essence shot through the ceiling and the room fell silent. Dean sighed deeply, his body releasing emotions, a cathartic moment for him as he watched Sam do the same and even Bobby who was trying to regroup himself. Cas sat relaxed on the couch, head slightly cocked as he looked up at the ceiling, he knew where she was but was unsure if that meant being safe or not. He hoped she would be happy, if anything he prayed for that.

Looking up at Dean, his arms crossed Vanessa watched his eyes as she caught her breath, panting softly.

"Lucy, you've got some splainin' to do."


	11. Storyteller

Sitting on the floor, feeling as if she were being ganged up on Vanessa Drake rubbed her eyes, her body feeling like it was about to crumble. "I did what you asked did I not?" She murmured getting up from the cool floor that needed a good washing.

Dean nodded "You did but I think you've been lying about who you are. Actually I know you've been lying. So what are you then a demon?" he asked as he walked towards her but she backed away.

"No! no, I'm not, it's complicated and you wouldn't understand or believe me." She said grabbing her bag and making her way for the door but she was stopped by the sound of a gun cocking. Turning around she faced Dean, a gun in his hand, the sawed off shotgun pointed between her eyes.

"Talk…if there's one thing I hate its being lied to." He muttered gripping the weapon tight in his hands.

"Baby, I don't know where to start." She murmured looking at the gun, inspecting its make and model.

"How about the beginning?" Dean said with a growl as he tipped the gun not moving a muscle, eyes set on hers.

"Whatever your mother said, and I imagine it was something like, oh there are more people in this body then there should be then she's right. This isn't my body but I'm not a demon…" She said sighing deeply. "Fuck, I hate to talk about this… it's a long story." She said trying to weasel her way out of an explanation.

"Well lucky us, we're not going anywhere." He said pressing the gun to her temple making her swallow hard.

"I didn't know my mother, who knows if I had a father, I was raised in foster homes all my life but one of the homes was bad, really bad. My foster brothers and sisters were great but the father if that's what you could call him with beat them, beat me, the son of a bitch would even come into the girls rooms at night, not me at first but I would hear him with the other girls, I was just a kid, I couldn't do anything. I listened to it, heard it going on for years until it finally happened to me when I was fourteen and that's when I broke. We tried telling the social workers but she didn't believe us, nor did she care, no one would listen to us. When I got to high school someone finally listened. One day in the courtyard a girl came to me in a school girl uniform, she looked like one of us but she wasn't, of course I didn't know that then. She asked me if I could have one wish and you know what I wished?" She asked Dean and he lowered the gun, putting it to his side seeing the honesty in this girl.

"I wished for the son of a bitch dead and then the girl, whoever she was kissed me and went off on her way. I stood under that oak tree for what felt like forever and then I walked home. When I got home he was dead, died of a heart attack and all of our problems were solved. I was fifteen and I thought I was the luckiest girl on the planet." She said hugging herself with her arms.

"Ten years later I was a journalist in Detroit when it got me, tore into me, turned me into ribbons, it was the most painful thing I had ever felt and then came the darkness." She said looking up at Dean.

He spoke slowly understanding what had happened to her, or some of it. "The hounds."

"Hell hounds, you've heard of them?" She asked lowering her arms.

Dean nodded with a gulp wanting her to continue but also wishing she wouldn't.

"I was 25 and I was in hell. The correct definition of "nightmare" is a dream arousing, fear, horror and distress but what they don't tell you, what is unclear is how vivid those nightmares can really be, especially if they are from the memory. The room is red, the heat is blazing and burns appear on the flesh and join old scars. These are the memories of someone whose pinky toe collided with hell, a taste on your tongue of what is to come but think about the ones whom survived it, what do they dream at night? I don't dream at night, I scream the whole way through and then I wake up and nothing changes."

She watched Dean look away, swallowing hard making her wonder why, why was he so taken aback by this?

"Dean?" She asked looking over at him and then looking over at the rest of the men in the room, solemn looks on their faces. He didn't answer for a few seconds, maybe it was a minute, she wasn't counting.

"Keep…going." He said regretting those words as soon as they escaped from his lips.

"After being in hell for so long things start to get bad, real bad, I tried to hang on as long as possible but the tables turned and I started dealing out the torture. I guess I became a demon or something like it, just enough so that I could possess someone. Well one day I found an opening, a lot of us did and we got out."

Dean looked over at Sam "The same day dad got out."

"I found someone's body to take over but she was in a coma and wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon so I used hers. I didn't want to be a demon but I wanted a body, my life wasn't over yet and I wanted to live. I wanted to live so bad Dean; I didn't know what else to do. If that makes me a demon than I guess that's what I am but you can't blame me for that, I mean I guess you can but please don't." She said with a tiny whimper.

Dean put his hand on her shoulder "I don't blame you, I mean why would anyone want to live at this very moment, especially a hunter? But I get your story, why you did everything you did." He said with a soft smile.

Vanessa looked at him and then over at Sam who was looking at his shoes "Why? Why do you forgive me so easily? No one else does." She said biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed.

Watching his layers drop to the floor, one brown leather jacket, one flannel shirt, and one gray thermal she watched him stand in a white cotton t-shirt with confusion. "Because I've been to hell too."

Gasping she looked into his eyes and at that moment they saw the exact same things in each other's eyes, shared pain, shared misery, shared memories and neediness for something more, something real and concrete. Pushing his sleeve up to show the mark Castiel had left on his arm, the handprint burnt into his skin he showed it off.

"Castiel got me out, said I had a destiny, me and Sam both do. Our whole lives have been one shitty game with us as the pawns and looks like you're a piece now too. The queen." He said as he watched her fingers trace the mark, she now looked infatuated with him, like she couldn't get enough even if she tried.

"What was that you said about your father?" She asked handing him the rest of his clothing, letting him put the layers all back on.

Sam walked over to Dean and held his leather jacket for him, tossing it on the couch next to Castiel who had retreated to his own head, traveling along his thoughts.

"Our dad went to hell too, on the day we busted open hell, a way out, he got out too. I'd imagine you got out the same time he did." Sam said as he went over to help Bobby put everything away and in its proper places.

"What was his name?" She asked Dean as she backed away from him a bit realizing she was probably in his personal bubble.

"His name was John, John Winchester." He said proudly.

"Do you have a picture?" She asked curiously as she leaned her body's weight on her heels.

Dean put a finger up and walked over to his duffel bag opening it up and reaching inside. Taking out an old and worn journal with pages spilling out of it he tinkered with it until he found a photo. "It's a little outdated but he hasn't changed much."

Walking over to her he moved next to her and pointed to the man in the picture, the man standing next to a pretty blonde and one young boy. "That's my dad."

Feeling her stomach churn she put a hand up to her mouth. "Oh my god."

"What, what is it?" Dean asked with concern in his voice as he looked at her, watching her back away towards the door. She looked like she couldn't wait to get out, she couldn't leave fast enough.

"That was the man that tortured me in hell."

AUTHORS NOTE/ CLIFFHANGA, DON'TCHA LOVE IT? OKAY SO THAT'S TWO CHAPTERS UP IN ONE DAY SUCKAS! THIS NEXT ONE MIGHT TAKE LONGER THOUGH WE SHALL SEE.


	12. A New Breed

She ran as fast as she could, harder than she had ever had to, even when she was hunting. John Winchester was the reason she was hunting, he had tortured her during her stay in hell until she had made the decision to join their side and whatever they were fighting for. John Winchester made her turn and then made her want to work towards redemption, she hated that word but she couldn't think of any other way to describe it. Trying to rid herself of the guilt was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. Before she had gone to hell she was just a reporter with a bad childhood but now she was someone, part of something, the only problem was she didn't know if she wanted to be a part of it. She was stuck in it, stuck on the ride at the carnival as it kept turning faster and faster, no time to get off.

Running through the front yard of Bobby Singer's place was rough enough as it was, weaving her way through old cars and their parts and the tall grass that looked like it hadn't been cut in years, but what was worse was the sound of Dean's running after her. She hated being followed and she hated getting too close and that's exactly what this man was doing, he was pushing her buttons and trying her patience.

"Leave me alone!" She yelled back at him as she found her way to the nearest round that was across from what looked like a corn field but with not much growing. Nothing was in season but the tall plants were still a healthy green.

Dean thought to himself, not a chance as he ran faster nearly tackling her to the ground as he finally caught up with her "What are you an Olympic runner?" He asked out of breath.

"Get the hell away from me." She said pushing him away from her "I don't want anything to do with your family; I made one mistake as is." She said turning her back towards him but he moved in front of her. She skirted away, avoiding his gaze but he followed her movements, courting her body.

"Look, just let me talk to you okay?" He asked grabbing her arm, quickly realizing his mistake as a fist collided with his jaw.

"I don't want to talk." She said looking in the middle of the road for passing cars or buses.

"Vanessa, you know what being in the pit does to a person, both me and you got ganked before our times and you're pissed but you know he didn't mean it." Vanessa listened to him but pretended she wasn't.

"Stop" She said simply putting her hand up as if that would get him to stop talking, but she didn't know Dean Winchester.

"His story is the same as ours, you get down there and the worst things imaginable are done to you and after a while you just can't take it anymore." He muttered, the words spilling out like when you squeeze a juice box too hard.

""It's still hard." She said catching her breath from all the running along with him.

"Well…yeah, always gonna be that way Princess." He said with a soft smile, eyes hurting.

"I'm no princess." She said looking into the field of green across the wide dirt path that served as a road for cars and tractor trailers although Sam and Dean rarely saw vehicles come around that way.

Swallowing hard she kept her eyes focused off of him as if he was out of mind and out of sight until he spoke.

"So, the girl, the other one inside of you…"

"Sounding kinky…" She said, cutting him off as she heard him scoff or was it a snort? She couldn't tell but it was a good sign.

"She's not functional, she's there but she's not functional… she can't think, hear anything, it's like she isn't even there, that's why I chose her. I had no choice Dean, I didn't want to die, and I wanted life so fucking bad." She said lip quivering as she almost lost control.

"I'm sorry for comparing you to a demon, or making the remark or suggestion or whatever." He said turning his chin to face her.

"No, no, it's only right to make that assessment, I did take what wasn't mine, I just like to think of making things better. Since I've entered this body I have felt my soul grow so much. I never want to be what I was in hell, ever again." She said feeling bile rise from her stomach and hit her throat, burning, making her remember.

"With yah there… Thanks, thanks for uhh, you know helping us with our mom. You saved a lot of lives doing what you did." He said with honest eyes, every word obvious and true.

"Okay so we uhh done with the chick flick moments?" She asked, balancing her body on the heels of her boots.

Dean nodded with a little laugh, "You sound like me."

Smiling softly the two turned around and headed back towards Bobby's house, finding some comfort from each other's words and similar situations.

From behind them came a sort of whooshing sound, and then a loud, overbearing crinkling sound, as if a crowd was stepping on a bushel of paper bags all at once.

Turning around slowly the two of them saw a maze of corn begin to drop, the crops crinkling and turning a sickly color before turning black, it looked like some sort of vegetable plague had fallen among them. It kept coming, from the back of the field to the front and Dean and Vanessa knew from the moment they began to see it that something was definitely wrong. "Run." Dean husked as felt her link with him, the two of them bolting to Bobby's front door.

"Dean! What the hell is that out there?" She asked, leaning against the door as Dean looked out the window, hovering over Cas who was flipping the TV's channels with the remote upside down to get a better view.

"I don't know." He said clenching his teeth tightly in his mouth. "But get Sam."

* * *

The wheels spun, the engine made a sound that was like nothing else, it sounded rich and expensive as it moved but that's because it was. It sounded like a white wild cat, a snow leopard of some sort, softly purring as it traveled its distance and made its course.

It wasn't loud like thunder but it made an impact, where ever it went, people noticed. Back in the old days it was a white stallion but now it was a bright white Rolls Royce.

Pestilence… and everything in its path would die.


	13. Spreading

In the brink of death the sickly pallor corpse stained almost a yellowish green like a bruise prayed in its wake. He could smell death on himself. He could scent the end from the musk of his own body. He was a walking corpse through and through but he struggled to stay anchored to this plain. This realm was his, but he was slowly slipping out of reality. They all were.

Clean feet, floral patterned gowns, day old jello, tubes sticking out of the flesh, this is what the people from the southwestern states had to look forward to until it spread across the globe leaving everyone…breathless…

* * *

Sam pressed his fingertips to the pages as he turned them quickly, skimming the text under the harsh lighting that cascaded the room from the sun. They all thought it was ironic that everything around them was dying and spoiling from disease but the sun was still shining bright. Lucifer was out there and he was destroying everything in his sight, but he had kept it restricted to a small area since he was laying low, letting his horsemen do some of the dirty work. They were the pre show.

"I think Bobby was right when he said it could be one of the horsemen, its pestilence to be exact, or kinda exact. I mean I could be more exact but I would have to read deep into the revelations from different texts and that could take longer than we have." Sam said to Dean who was listening to the police radio with Cas.

"Do what you have to, so what exactly does this whole pestilence thing mean?" Dean asked putting the tiny radio system in Castiel's lap watching the blue eyed angel's face change from hopeless to even more hopeless as he listened to the words.

Plague. Spreading. Incurable. Serious. Human contact.

The words went on and on, the scripture sung, words stinging as they landed in Cas's brain.

"It means plague is spreading, disease, that's what pestilence does, it grabs hold and doesn't let go until death comes and helps it along even further. Lucifer is thinning out the human race for fun, and I think he wants to get to us. He thinks if he kills enough of our friends I'll let him have my body. Thinks I'll say yes." Sam said as he ran a hand through his hair, the brown locks falling into the front of his face. He chose to ignore it.

"Okay so it just means we're getting closer and closer to the end of the human race, fucking wonderful. Gonna be like Planet of the Apes."

Vanessa made a face from the corner of the room and Dean could see it from the corner of his eye. She was sitting in the corner adjusting to everything Bobby had just told her about the two brothers and their rotten destiny. She was in awe, but speechless, entirely speechless. Dean fully understood, he would freak out over all the information too if he was an outsider. She wasn't running away though, so that was a step.

Bobby kept a watchful eye on Vanessa though, he still didn't trust her. Trust was hard to come by these days; they had trusted Ruby and look what it got them.

Dean paced around the room "Great, this is just great."

Castiel turned off the radio with a click, putting it to the side of him. "Do not lose hope."

Dean wanted to throw the radio at him, hard; he looked at Cas with angered eyes. "How can you even say that Cas?"

Vanessa crossed her legs and let them rest on what looked to be an ottoman in the middle of the room. "He's right… maybe there isn't hope out there for us, but there is hope out there for others, we have to make sure that happens. The world isn't going to hell in a hand basket, I won't let it. So if that means I have to shoot Sam between the eyes, I'm going to do it. You say yes Sam, you even think about saying yes, WHAM. You're my next target."

Dean clamped his teeth together tightly, taking in air so that it made a hissing sound as he breathed, maybe she was right, maybe somehow this woman, this being was the voice of reason. She may have been brutally honest but maybe that was what Dean needed to hear.

The room was quiet for a moment and Castiel was sure he could hear crickets chirping as it became night, it had been a long day and they all were tired and angry and on edge.

Sam looked around the room and then back at all his material scattered on the makeshift desk Bobby had created in the corner of the room out of wooden planks and books. The place needed a woman's touch and they all knew it. Ever since his wife died he had let it go downhill, ran it down to a shell of what it once was. It was a frame of the past but it was still a home, but he knew it wasn't helping with the moods of the Winchester boys and their new friend, Miss Drake.

"So this pestilence thing, it's one of the four, death following which makes sense. In the revelations it rides a white horse so we're looking for white cars I would imagine."

Dean snorted "Well that's a lot to go on, look keep Nancy Drewing until we find something better than a white ride. Cas can't you be of any help? Get off your angelic ass and do something?"

Cas almost rolled his eyes; he was spending too much time around the Winchesters. "I am not a locating device and my powers are not up to par to do much of anything but listen. I will listen."

He said as he turned the police radio back on, resting his head on a worn pillow that looked like it was from Mexico. It was, it was a pillow Bobby's former wife had purchased while the two were in Cancun for their honey moon.

Bobby watched Cas lay back on the pillow and blinked slowly remembering all the good times he had had with his dead wife, his princess, the Queen to his kingdom. Closing his eyes he remembered her building a sandcastle on the beaches with their white sand. The sand was so smooth and there was not a pebble to be found in the area. She pranced around in her little beige bikini that blended in with the sand that was closest to the water.

Coming back to reality Bobby placed his hands on the wheels of his chair and moved himself over to his room in the back that was once a storage room. He hasn't been upstairs since the accident, he couldn't but every now and then he had Sam or Dean bring him down things or help him with chores or whatnot but for now he wanted to dream, because dreams was all he had left.

* * *

Dean watched Cas and Vanessa sleep, books in their laps. They slept sitting up as Sam and Dean kept at it, watching the news and sensing the destruction so close to them, they wondered why the infection had not yet spread to them, they figured they would be the biggest targets but maybe not, they were needed for bigger but not better things.

Dean sighed; he watched Vanessa's chest rise and fall, everything covered by that turtleneck. He thought of that scary story with the woman who wore a scarf all the time to keep her head on and wondered if Vanessa removed her shirt the same thing would happen. She looked somewhat peaceful for once, her long hair styled in a braid like Lara Croft, thinking about it now she looked like Lara Croft but with blue eyes and lighter hair. The body though, that Lara Croft curvy body from the most recent video games, that was spot on, he just wondered why she was always covering it. Suddenly he heard Sam clear his throat and he turned his head over to face his younger brother.

"You've got some drool." Sam said teasing him.

Dean gave his brother the finger and went over to Cas removing the book from his lap and replacing it with a blanket, the little guy still looking like utter crap from being the devil's chew toy.

Doing the same for Vanessa Sam left the room, taking his laptop upstairs unable to concentrate with the sounds of Bobby's snoring from the next room.

He silently removed the book from her grasp but she woke up looking startled. Wiping her eyes she looked around nervously. "I was sleeping?" She asked with a groan.

Dean nodded "Everyone is. It's late, way past midnight."

"Don't let me do that again." She said getting up and walking into the kitchen, Dean trailing behind her like a puppy without a leash, free to follow.

Watching her pour a glass of orange juice she downed the glass trying to wake herself up.

"Why? Why can't I let you sleep, you looked, I don't know, peaceful." He said sputtering out the words, the truth.

"Because Dean, I was dreaming about you." She stated putting the glass in the sink, averting her eyes from him knowing he would be grinning like a mad man, flattered.

"And that's so terrible?" Dean asked leaning against the fridge, both of them listening to its hum.

"You get attached you get yourself killed and I'm not dying again, no way no how. I turned into a hunter because it's the only thing I could do, it's not my ideal and I know I'm not safe but I do have enough determination to not get myself killed. You get in my way and it's the end for me."She said confidently, believing every word.

"And what about me? What about what I want?" Dean asked turning to her, eyes catching hers for a split second.

"You're barking up the wrong tree baby…" She said searching the cabinets for liquor. She sounded like him and he knew it. Role reversal wasn't something he was used to. Pointing to the cabinet where he knew the hard stuff would be she silently thanked him as she opened it up, staring at its contents.

"Drink?" She asked reaching for the bottles.

"Always." He responded sitting on the counters with her.

Pouring them each a glass of straight vodka she raised her glass.

"To the end of the world."


	14. One of Our Own

**Chapter 14**

Her fingers held the neck as the bow hit the strings creating an elegant tune, embellishing the once quiet and empty room. Surrounded my books and papers that flew around the room from the window being slightly open she kept her nose in the papers held down by other heavy texts. Why did she stay? Why didn't she go? She asked these questions everyday but she knew what it was. It was him.

Although he was beautiful, charming and funny, those things didn't draw her to him, the boy had no hope left in him and that made him tragic. She was never attracted to tragedy on earth, only in hell but things hurt less with knowing he had been through the same things she had and had made it as a human. If he could do it then she believed she could too.

She closed her eyes and dreamt of the two of them standing on a bridge overlooking water, the way it sparkled made her eyes not blink for a long while. She wished it could talk to her, what would it say if it could speak? Every river has a mouth but not every river could talk, she knew if it could its voice would be calming, just as calming as Deans, if not more so. Little did she know that it was the bridge over troubled water, everything was means too trouble these days.

There was no escaping death, no escaping the end, no escaping Lucifer and Michael who were on Sam and Dean's tails and now there was Pestilence. Sam and Dean had faced something like Pestilence once before, the Croatoan virus. So far everything was just spoiling and wilting like flowers but Sam and Dean braced themselves for there to be much worse and they were teetering on edge waiting for the people in Sioux Falls and the areas around Bobby's place to become infected and to start going bat shit insane.

"Whatcha got going on over here?"

A voice boomed from behind her frame as her fingers plucked the strings on the violin and they grazed the maple exterior. It was Dean; she knew his voice by heart now.

Turning around she looked up at him "Just playing, I got some of my old things from the car back in Utah, this being one of my things." She said going back to it.

Dean leaned against the frame of the doorway "Didn't know you played."

"Well there's a lot you don't know about me." She said setting it down on the floor atop papers among other things.

Dean nodded, his head slightly askew, he couldn't not agree with that statement, they had only been in each other's way for about three days, but they hadn't really been counting, the days had seemed to bleed together and neither one of them had slept more than an hour a night. They were living off coffee, mountain dew and ice cold showers.

"So, any new leads?" He asked hovering over her trying to read the text from where he was standing. "Sam's been researching like crazy too, he's just mostly devastated by the losses, he will hardly come out of the basement. I'm surprised he even wants to set a foot down there after…everything." Dean said pacing around the room, jacked up on caffeine.

Vanessa nodded slowly as she kept her focus on all the papers eyes half closed. "He's punishing himself." She said with a whisper.

"For what?" Dean asked quickly, kneeling down next to her as he watched Cas come out from the kitchen with a glass of water, he was fully healed except for a small bruise under his left eye.

"All these deaths… even though he isn't technically killing anyone, he still blames himself for the whole killing Lilith thing, bringing up Lucifer."

Dean looked over at Cas watching him sit down on the couch with a bag of Doritos, somehow the being ill had gotten to his head and he was acting more human. "How do you know that?"

"It's what I would do." She said quietly as she reached for a cup of coffee, a little mug behind her.

Turning on the TV, the volume on loud Cas kept his fingers steady on the remote as he flipped through the channels, the death toll up. Rising to his feet he snapped his fingers and he was dressed in his regular attire,

"I must go. There is work to be done." He said looking at Vanessa and Dean from across the room, the two of them started by his speech. He hadn't spoken much in the past few days, and he was of not much help. He had slept more than the whole house combined, they were all sure of it.

Watching Cas disappear out of nowhere Vanessa and Dean looked at each other prattling on about Sam quietly to themselves as he entered making the whole thing incredibly awkward.

"So…" Sam said sitting on the couch, the seat still warm from Castiel's body. "What's next? I mean, once we find out where this pestilence guy is, what do we do then?"

Vanessa helped herself to another cup of coffee and left the room, going outside for a breather.

Dean shook his head "We find this pestilence son of a bitch and gank the sucker. Smoke him out real good."

Sam looked worried; he knew when Dean was being overly confident something was wrong deep down. "Yeah but how?"

Dean shrugged "Same way as always, we'll figure it out. Maybe he's got a ring or…."

Sam crossed his arms tightly as if he was hugging himself, he tried to keep himself from looking like a small little boy as he talked "Or I drink a whole bunch of demon blood and get rid of the son of a bitch myself."

Dean raised a brow "Not what I was going to say Sammy if you'd just let me speak. Or… or…there's gotta be another way alright, one that doesn't involve you. One that involves you taking a vacation in Tahiti or something."

Sam sighed, the sounds coming from his body sounding like what hopelessness would sound like if it was in a more coherent form.

"We'll figure this out Sammy, don't lose hope. Plus now we got a hot chick in the bunch… hey have you noticed that every top she wears is a turtleneck, is she like a cartoon character or something?" He asked his younger brother trying to find some light in their situation.

Sam looked out the window to watch Vanessa drink something out of a flask as she leaned against the porch looking at all the wrecked cars and the dead grass around the house. "I don't know, maybe you should ask her."

Dean nodded silently "So where's Bobby?"

Sam bit his bottom lip "Around…"

Dean turned his head around to face the wall where Bobby would be right behind "Dude what does that even mean? I haven't seen him in like a full day."

Sam shifted his body so it was almost all the way off the couch. "Dean he's sick, Bobby's infected with whatever virus Pestilence is spreading."

Dean stood up quickly making his way to the door but Sam stopped him "What how?!" He asked with panicked concern.

Sam shrugged "I don't know Dean, when Pestilence drove past this place it spread something, everything around us has died, gone to waste and Bobby got hit with it."

Dean nearly punched the wall, filled with rage "How? And what about us? We aren't infected."

Sam nodded "I think we're immune. I think…since we're the vessels for…whatever, we're immune."

"What about Vanessa, she's not infected by this thing." He said looking out the door at her; she looked perfectly healthy to him, just tired, black around her eyes.

Sam shuffled "I don't know, maybe she's just a freak of nature or something."

"What's wrong with him?" Dean asked about to open the door but Sam pulled him away.

"He doesn't want anyone to see him like this, only me. I was there with him when he found out he was infected, and that's how it's going to stay, according to him." Sam mumbled as Dean walked away from the door hands on his head as if he was nursing a head ache, maybe he was.

"How long does he have?" Dean asked nervously, his voice shaky.

Sam shrugged "The symptoms they portrayed on the news came to him yesterday, I'm thinking only two days more. I've been taking care of him and researching my ass off but I haven't found any leads. I'm not doing enough." He muttered.

Dean growled softly "Well not telling me he was sick till now was a great idea on your part." He said sarcastically.

"I was trying to fix it myself. I've done enough damage." Sam mumbled as he turned his back on his brother.

Vanessa was right; Sam was blaming himself for everything, and Dean deep down blamed himself for everything that was happening around them as well so he couldn't judge. Everyone was so full of remorse.

"We'll fix this…together…but right now, you're staying here, Vanessa, Cas and I will do this one, you take care of Bobby." Dean said grabbing his duffel bag out of the closet.

Sam was quick to protest "But…" …But Dean barked back. "No Sam, you stay…you put one toe outside that door, I'll squash you like a bug. Are we clear?"

Sam nodded and handed Dean a few books he might need and saw him off. Vanessa looked back at Sam as he drove himself deep into the house, out of sight. "What was that all about?" She asked, curiosity growing in her eyes.

Dean clicked his tongue and she followed him knowing he meant business. He opened the door of the impala and hopped inside. She quickly followed, slamming the door.

Dean looked over at her, the engine revving…

"You said you wanted a purpose, well this is it…"


	15. Ready, Steady, Go

**Chapter 15**

He bit his lip, he bit her lip so hard it bled, the droplets forming on the crackly exterior. He held the gun tightly in his hands, he had been in this position before and he didn't like it, not one bit. Squeezing the grip, his finger on the trigger Dean watched his hand shake, the pretty brunette in his view.

"Dean no! I'm not infected, Dean don't do this, you have to trust me…please…"

The begging, the begging is what did it for him, it could have been the demon talking but something was honest in her eyes. Tears fell freely down her cheeks stained red from her sobs of defeat and wonder. Is today the day I die? Where will I go? Heaven or hell, please god let it be heaven.

"Dean…Dean please…give it more time, please, just tie me up, I'll be okay, it will be okay… I don't want to die, Dean I don't want to go to hell again."

Dean licked the small film of blood that adorned his lips and pressed a hand to his forehead, sweat caking the side of his hand as he took sharp breaths.

"We don't have time."

* * *

**One hour Earlier**

Driving to La Salle, Texas, Vanessa, Dean and the occasional Castiel drove through the southern states as they listened to the blasting sounds of AC/DC, Bad Company and Blue Oyster Cult. They didn't say much, and Dean didn't even know what he had planned, the only thing he could think of was to drive as fast as could and put the pedal to the metal.

"So, what's this little mission?" Vanessa finally asked as she toyed with the lemon scented air freshener they had yet to take out.

Dean looked at the air freshener and briefly thought how the thing was majorly cramping his style. "It's a big mission. Bobby's infected with the virus."

Vanessa's eyes went wide and she made a whistling sound "God, which one the scary homicidal virus or the cough cough virus?"

Dean rolled his eyes and spoke, instantly feeling stupid and silly as he repeated her words. It only sounded cute because it came from her and she was very much a girl. "The cough cough kind."

Vanessa sighed "So how much time do we have left?"

"Clocks ticking and we have to go into hyperdrive. Been goin' 80 for the past half hour, you haven't noticed?" He asked her looking at the speedometer.

"Oh, I've noticed." She muttered raking her nails across her legs trying to scratch an itch.

"Want any help?" Dean asked looking over at her with a smirk on his boyish face.

"Hardy har har." Vanessa muttered as she looked out the window, watching the cactus get bigger and bigger as they went along. "How do you know the demon thing's made it this far?"

"Been doing this long enough darlin', know our way around trackin' evil sons of bitches." He said pulling into an empty parking lot.

"Just how I know that in the front of that bar, we're gonna find Pestilence."

* * *

She sat at the bar, her pearls tightly secured around her neck and her white suit without one crease. Tugging on her cashmere sweater set she brushed herself off and slid a hand through her whitish colored hair. She was very much the well coiffed grandma type and she looked so rich the men in the bar wouldn't have been surprised if when she walked, diamonds fell from the skies to pile around her.

"Boys… it's time to have some fun. Give me some sugar." She said as she raised her hand with a little gleeful clap.

* * *

Vanessa and Dean leaned on the impala and looked at a book, fully in latin. "Can you read this?" Vanessa asked him and he shrugged.

"Can you?"

She nodded "A little…enough to get by." Dean nodded, agreeing with her. With the two of them together, they were a good pair of hunters. They used what they had and blended the skills together figuring out the pages slowly.

"So you're just gonna bargain with her? Bargain using what?" She asked sliding her fingers over the impala's trunk.

"With your soul" Dean said grabbing her quickly and pressing a blade to her throat. She tried to speak but her voice was cut off as he pressed further to her skin, only a little area present because fabric covered the rest.

"Your soul for Bobby's health, only thing I can think of. Sorry babe." He said pulling her along.

Pushing her into the bar he spotted the woman in white and knew that was his prospect but she only snapped her fingers and went out the front of the place like she owned it. Dean peered through the glass window and saw her get into a shiny white Rolls Royce and damn that car was fine. He quickly stopped ogling it and thought about how jealous his baby would be.

Holding onto Vanessa who squirmed as much as she could, the two of them watched the entire bar get up and Dean instantly knew what was coming, he could see it in their eyes. The crowd charged at the two of them and Dean released her from his grasp. Fighting them off, the two of them pushed their way to the car and Vanessa yelled at Dean.

"You're an asshole! If these things don't kill us, I'm gonna do the job myself." She said as their feet hit the dusty road. Dean got into the impala and he grabbed his keys as a man with a large trucker hat cut through her sweater and bled into her. Dean shot him in the head from the driver's seat and she ran to the car.

"What the hell was that?" She said holding her arm as she sat in the back seat.

Dean looked back into his mirror. "Crazy homicidal virus... He bled on you." He murmured shaking his head.

Vanessa nodded "Yeah he did, but I don't feel any different. Dean what were you thinking trying to use me as a bargaining tool?" She said feeling hurt and betrayed.

Dean shrugged, voice shaky for a multitude of reasons "I figured Pestilence would feed off the other soul inside of you since that one is weaker, you were my only hope."

Vanessa nodded "Well thanks ever so, I'm so fucking flattered. Next time give a girl a warning okay?" She asked hissing from the deep cut in her arm.

Dean pulled the car over to the side of the road, the coast was clear, not a person in sight. "Would you have come with me if I did tell you my 50/50 plans?"

She shook her head and she swore she heard him mutter the word, "exactly" but her thoughts were quickly muddled by him stepping out of the car and sitting down next to her in the backseat with a first aid kit. "Let me see."

Giving him her arm he shook his head "Can't help you like that. Can you take this off?" He asked pointing to the sweater.

"You wish." She mumbled crossing her arms.

"What are you hiding underneath this? I just want to help, patch you up."

Sighing she pulled her sweater off enjoying the refreshing feeling of the air on her skin after being cooped up so long in the thick fabric. She watched Dean's eyes follow a long white scar from the side of her neck to her shoulder. "Self conscious over a little scar?"

Vanessa shrugged "It's not the scar, its ugly and I'm aware of that but that's not why I hide it. I hide it because it reminds me that I messed up. I screwed up on a hunt, and I HATE being reminded that I'm a screw up, I deal with that every day." She said biting her lip as he patched up her arm.

Dean sighed pulling a gun on her. He was hurting, she was hurting but this was everyday and he couldn't waste time, she was going to turn on him any second and kill him and maybe even succeed.

He bit his lip, he bit her lip so hard it bled, the droplets forming on the crackly exterior. He held the gun tightly in his hands, he had been in this position before and he didn't like it, not one bit. Squeezing the grip, his finger on the trigger Dean watched his hand shake, the pretty brunette in his view.

"Dean no! I'm not infected, Dean don't do this, you have to trust me…please…"

The begging, the begging is what did it for him, it could have been the demon talking but something was honest in her eyes. Tears fell freely down her cheeks stained red from her sobs of defeat and wonder. Is today the day I die? Where will I go? Heaven or hell, please god let it be heaven.

"Dean…Dean please…give it more time, please, just tie me up, I'll be okay, it will be okay… I don't want to die, Dean I don't want to go to hell again."

Dean licked the small film of blood that adorned his lips and pressed a hand to his forehead, sweat caking the side of his hand as he took sharp breaths.

"We don't have time."

Her words stopped him. "Dean you need me, please. I can help. I can help you, trust me please."

Lowering the gun a voice boomed in his head. He couldn't decide whether it was real or a figment of his imagination. "I can help save Bobby." It said.

"You don't have to lose anybody else."

Looking up from his lap he saw it was Vanessa talking and he immediately knew it wasn't her in there talking, it was Michael. He had found them.

"Dean Winchester. You weren't hard to find. You are getting sloppy boy… what I said, it's true you know. All you have to do is say yes, I can heal Vanessa, I can heal Bobby and I can keep them safe. Bobby's running out of time and soon he'll be dead. Vanessa will turn evil once again and will sit at Lucifer's feet but if you say yes…"

Dean cut him off from his sentence and looked into his eyes. He couldn't do this anymore, he just couldn't. It was a long time coming and he knew it.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….."Yes."

And everything changed.


	16. Bitter

_**December, 24**__**th**__**, 1979**_

* * *

Clutching the powder blue soft blanket in her hands, Mary Winchester felt John Winchester come up behind her, his hands quickly finding her swollen, round belly.

"I'm about ready to pop." She exclaimed moving to the chair in the tiny apartment they were sharing.

Helping her settle into the chair, John placed a pillow behind her back so she could lean without having the wood dig into her back. Admiring her Christmas sweater and her yellow khaki shirt, John sat down next to her with a smile on her face.

"Still got a month to go beautiful, be patient." He said stroking her cheek, palm caressing her soft skin as he pressed his lips to her forehead.

"You know they say sex helps induce the labor." Mary said with a stifled giggle. Watching John shake his head she laughed softly, the sound bouncing off the walls.

"Mary Winchester you got a mouth on you." He said standing up to sweep the counters of crumbs from her sandwich that she munched on.

"Can't believe half that sandwich is mustard…mustard and bacon. That's really what you're craving?" He asked making a face until she looked over at him with those kind eyes. He couldn't help but grin, she truly was mesmerizing, oh the things she could do with those puppy dog eyes.

eMary nodded with a sheepish smile as she hit her glowing face behind a loaf of wonder bread. Pulling the bread away from her face he tossed it on the counter and kissed her deeply making her squeal with delight.

"I love you Mary." He exclaimed as he fed her the sandwich.

Talking with her mouth full she giggled and tried to feed him the sandwich watching him back away. "I love you too Mr. Winchester."

"Ugh No way am I eating that, not even if you paid me!" He said ruffling her hair and walking over to the stove.

"Hey no fair, I can't even chase you, I'm too big." Mary pouted as she nudged him to turn on the radio, Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" played in the background, the two of them listening half heartedly.

John moved closer "Hey babe…so I've been thinking names" he said reaching for the soft blue blanket, toying with the edges.

"I was thinking Dean, after your mom, seems fitting, what do you think?" He said massaging her shoulders as a Christmas song came on the radio.

"John, you're too sweet. So kind, I think it's perfect, mom would have loved that." She murmured feeling warmth in her face.

John nodded, thinking to himself but allowing the words to come out "I still think it's really weird that they died on the same day."

Mary turned her shoulder to look over at him "You promised you wouldn't talk about that, it's almost Christmas John, I don't want to think about what I'm missing. I want to think about what I'm gaining, a new little family of my own." She said trying not to think of demons, hunting and the whole nine yards, the family business.

Hearing her out completely John took her hand and helped her off the chair, leading her into the tiny living room to a bare tree. "Come on, let's decorate this big bad tree, and show it whose boss."

"Yes sir." She said with a delighted smile as she picked up the angel for the top of the tree "Work our way down, or work our way up?" She asked watching him munch on a candy cane.

John shrugged giving her a lick of the peppermint stick. "Why are you such a sucker for the angel thing?"

Mary cocked her head, thinking to herself "I don't know, I always liked the idea of some higher beings looking out for us. Especially for Dean, he's gonna need them one day and I just hope they're gonna be there for my beautiful boy."

"I'm sure they will, he's gonna be perfect Mare." John murmured smiling at her from across the room as he hung up a few ornaments with a picture of Mary's mother Deanna and Mary's father, Samuel in them.

"Our little Angel."

* * *

Waking up to darkness, Vanessa Lynn Drake felt as if her head was going to burst. She didn't know why because she could hardly remember anything, but she instantly knew something was wrong. Struggling to sit upright she held her head in her hands as she blinked again and again until she could see clearly. In front of her was Dean and she sighed softly, relieved he was okay.

"Thank God you're okay…" She said gripping his hand as she breathed deeply.

"God's got nothing to do with it, I know the man personally and he's far too busy sweetheart." The thing inside of Dean murmured.

_What the hell is he talking about? _

"Dean what are you saying?" She asked looking into his eyes and seeing nothing, or something, but something that wasn't Dean.

"I'm saying, Dean's not home" Michael said as he ran a hand through Dean's hair like he was some slick Greaser from the 50's.

"Michael" She murmured pressing her fingers to her lips, unsure of what to do. "Let him go."

Michael threw his head back in a jovial laugh, boot clad foot hitting the back of the driver's seat "Babe, he said yes...which means he's mine to do with what I please and I've got a lot of work to do to prepare for what is coming."

"And what's that exactly?" She asked gripping her gun and holding it up to his face, her eyes vulnerable.

"You'll see" He stated simply as he put his hand in front of the barrel of the pistol. Sensing the vulnerability in her eyes and the way her body tensed he gave her a kind yet somehow devious smile.

"Do not be fearful of me, I'm on the right team, you are no longer infected thanks to me and I have healed Robert Singer but that does not mean I am about to face pestilence, I'm looking forward to seeing the reunion between Pestilence and Death, should be grand. Good luck, you'll all be needing it. I'll take good care of Dean Winchester." He said stepping out of the car watching the barrel of the gun follow his body.

Following him she kept her arm steady and the gun poised and in position "Where the hell do you think you're going?" She yelled at him.

Turning around he gave her a boyish smile, trying to be charming but it didn't work for him. "I've got a war to finish."

Watching him walk down the dirt road, his boots kicking up the dust she lowered her gun as she quaked in her boots. Walking behind the impala she wiped the sweat from her brow and promptly vomited, knelt over. Spitting she wiped her mouth and punched the car's bumper watching her knuckles bleed.

"Fuck!"

* * *

Looking over at Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer reached his shaking hand to his forehead and felt a wet cool cloth upon it. Moving it away he got up and realized his legs could move. Sam looked over at him with wide eyes and burst into a grin.

"Bobby you're walking!" He said in a gleeful tone.

"I can see that yah idjit." He murmured feeling hot tears stain his cheeks.

Sam helped Bobby up and got him walking, it was almost as if there were never any problems with Bobby in the first place, he seemed like a new man and he was so grateful for whatever second chance he had just been given.

Bobby smiled "I don't know what that brother of yours just did but you remind me to thank him."

* * *

Driving the impala Vanessa slammed her hands against the steering wheel angrily "Why would you do a thing like that you selfish, stupid, son of a bitch!" She yelled, talking to herself.

"Sorry Mary." She apologized as she took a deep breath to calm herself down. She was on the verge of pulling a Thelma minus the Louise and taking the plunge off the nearest cliff but something was keeping her going, she needed to get him back.

She needed to keep hope alive because without it she was as good as dead, or as good as a demon.

"What have I just gotten myself into?" She muttered blinking rapidly trying to keep from sobbing. She had never felt so defeated in her life. Dean had given himself over, something she had done too many times and she knew what it was like, giving up, not knowing where to turn. She would gladly let Michael take her body as the vessel but she knew it was impossible, for it was not her fate.

She had made it through a shitty childhood; an all expense paid vacation to hell and overcame her demonic thirst for death and destruction like a junkie with her heroin but this, this she wasn't sure she could handle. Once again she was in the same boat as Dean. Who was she? What was **her** purpose in all of this?

* * *

Driving till it was night, Vanessa finally made it back to Bobby's place. Hopping out of the impala she found Sam and Bobby sitting on the porch. Watching Sam Winchester and Bobby singer stand she did a double take realizing what had happened. When Michael had healed Bobby of the disease he had healed him completely of all afflictions.

Walking towards them, everything felt as if it was in slow motion, maybe it was. Sam rushed to her but it was all a blur. He stood tall and she had to look up at him.

"Where's Dean?" He asked looking behind her. "You guys did it. He promised he would do it, and he did."

Vanessa shook her head, the words painful to get out "No…he didn't. He's gone Sam."

Sam cocked his head quizzically "What? Gone, gone where?" He asked hanging on every syllable, listening to her like a dog with its ears perked up.

"He said yes Sam, he said yes to Michael."

* * *

**December, 24****th****, 1979**

Mary held John as he kissed her softly, a hand pressing against her belly to feel a kick from their unborn son. Smiling the two of them looked into the night sky from the window and sighed happily. Everything was perfect.

"Our little Angel."


	17. Transitions

Waking up to the sound of his own whimper Sam Winchester sat up in bed breathing hard, panting heavily as he shivered. He checked the window but it was not open. Something was missing and he knew what it was, it was his brother. It had only been eight hours without Dean, knowing Dean's body was being used by an archangel. He didn't know what hurt more, the fact that Dean had caved in or the fact that he was just gone, not in Sam's reach. Sam had always had Dean there to turn to for as long as he could remember, but now everything was all different and it stung his skin as if a million wasps were angry with him.

Truth was, he was angry with himself, he could have done something. He could have gone with Dean or kept in touch with Vanessa via cell phone, any bit could have helped. Pressing his calloused hands to his face he felt wetness and realized he had been crying in his sleep, he was not ashamed, not one bit. Pulling the sheets off of him hurt, it hurt to move, he felt heartbroken, and the grief was so bad. It felt like he had lost Dean all over again, this feeling was not new to him. When Dean was first killed Sam felt the same things and even though Dean was not dead, he wasn't alive now either.

Throwing on a cotton white t-shirt and a fresh pair of socks from his duffel bag Sam sighed and trudged his way downstairs only to find Vanessa on her hands and knees surrounded by more books than before he had left her. Her hair was matted and there were dark circles around her eyes and she was running on adrenaline and espresso shots. Bobby was fast asleep in the lounge chair in the corner with a book in his lap; he had been working himself too hard.

"Did you get any sleep?" Sam muttered reaching for a mug for his coffee.

"Nope… not sleeping until I find some leads on this pestilence bitch or on getting Dean back." She murmured briefly putting down her book to look up at him.

"Why are you doin' all this?" He asked kneeling next to her.

Looking up at him she bit her lip shaking her head trying not to tear up "It's all I have left… Sam after everything, after coming back all I know is hunting. I couldn't just go back to my old life in another body, you know how many connections I would have to regain? I wouldn't be up to par with that level of reporting that I was at until I'm like forty." She said with a soft chuckle, finding the whole situation funny, because there was nothing else to laugh about.

Sam nodded "I know what that's like. When I went to school I felt like I had it all but then when I had the chance to go back I knew I couldn't. It wouldn't be the same."

"I'm a hunter now, a hunter with a hell of a past and this, helping your family it's all I got going for me." She said spreading the pages of the book on her knee.

"You hardly know us." Sam said looking deep into her, searching for answers, searching for more.

"I know enough to know you're good people, or at least to know you have the best of intentions." She said confidently.

"But why stay?" Sam asked still so confused, nothing yet able to sink in.

"Because I know desperation when I see it."

* * *

**One Hour Later**

In the same positions they were in an hour ago except this time Bobby was awake and Sam was more sitting next to Vanessa, a whooshing sound filled the room and Sam turned around to face Castiel who was standing near the front door looking disheveled himself.

"Sam…I heard about Dean, about what Michael did. He said yes." Castiel said as he fixed his trench coat.

Sam nodded "Yeah Cas, he did… thank you for breaking that to us so gently." He said with a scoff as he tossed him a book watching Cas fumble with it as it landed in his arms. He obviously wasn't too graceful in his skin, or Jimmy Novak's skin.

"I am under assumption that Michael has taken Dean as his vessel to try to persuade you, Sam to say yes to Lucifer so he can kill his brother, the man that betrayed him, the man that has betrayed us all. There is more to the story but there must be battle where only one of you will live, or that is how it is fated. Until then I do not know exactly what it means for Michael to have Dean as his vessel but I do know he will take care of him, he will not hurt him because he is needed."

"Cas we know all of this." Sam mumbled pressing his fingers to his temples.

"Then I am here to warn you." Cas said fixing his tie.

"Warn us, warn us from what?" Bobby asked standing on his own two feet again not as happy anymore that he was healed since it meant Dean was no longer with them.

Castiel sighed deeply putting a hand to his head "Warn you from doing anything, if you try to weasel Dean out of Michael terrible things will happen."

Bobby moved closer to Cas, angry, fuming "What you mean worse than this virus that's killing everybody and the rest of the horseman and Lucifer's army?!"

Cas looked at him blankly, putting his hands in his pockets "Yes. Yes exactly."

"Wonderful." Vanessa murmured laying back on the books. "I need a drink. Raise your hand if you need a drink" She said watching the room fill up with hands up in the air, even Castiel's.

* * *

"_Let me out of here" _Dean begged inside of Michael's head as Michael flipped the channels on an old fashioned television set. "Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring. Dean stop whining, you said yes now you must deal with the consequences. I'm quite sure your mother taught you the saying, you make your own bed you must lay in it?" He asked with a tiny smirk, pleased with his comment.

"_Yeah, sure she said that but all moms say that, I'm sure she wasn't talking about an archangel using my meat suit!" _

"Simmer down child; I'm trying to watch my soaps." Michael said groaning, trying to quite the voice in his head.

"_Wait seriously?" _

Michael scoffed and wished he could smack himself in the head making it hurt Dean "No."

"_Buzz kill." _

* * *

Spotting a bunch of suitcases by the door Sam's eyes opened wide as he pointed to Bobby who was tipsy on tequila "Did you know about this?"

Bobby looked over at Vanessa as she came down the stairs in a green turtleneck, jeans and high heeled boots that made her look even taller than she already was. "Well I saw her packing, but I didn't say anything, it's not my place."

Sam put his hands to his head in a panic; he didn't want to lose anyone else, not one more person. "Then whose place is it, is it my place? Whose place is it!?" He asked taking sharp breaths as he paced around the kitchen watching Castiel sip on gin.

Vanessa approached Sam "Sam, Sam calm down, it's going to be okay. I'm leaving, you're right." She said putting a hand on his shoulder but he brushed it off.

"Why?" He blurted out quickly.

She was quick to answer "Because I have a plan, a plan that doesn't involve you."

"Vanessa, if you are planning something, I want to be a part of it." He yelled back at her but she only pushed back harder.

"Look you do your thing, I do mine, but I'm gonna make damn well sure the two paths don't cross and that's final Sam, so do me a favor and get out of my face and let me do what I have to do." She said slipping on her leather jacket as she grabbed her suitcases.

"I was never in your way." Sam said watching the door slam. Turning to Bobby he crossed his arms and watched Castiel rise to his feet. Moving towards Sam with a bottle of whiskey he poured it into a little shot glass and handed it to him.

"You are my friend Sam, I am sorry for you but I am here for you, all of you. We will figure this out, but not this way, not drinking until we can't think any longer. What's inside of your brain will help us beat this. One more drink and then we get back to work." He stated clinking glasses with Sam as they heard the roar of one of Bobby's trucks, the sound of Vanessa leaving.

"One more drink" Sam said swallowing the bitter liquid, letting it burn his throat all the way down. That would wake him up.

"Just one more" He murmured to himself as he slumped against the couch.

Just one more. …


	18. Separation Anxiety

She watched the man in front of her rip and tear into the shorter man's neck like a chalice as he drank deep. Blood splattered against the ground below them and she kept her eyes on his own pair which did not look demonic but looked more desperate and lost. He drank not with passion but because he needed it, it was like a life force to him. She assumed he was a vampire like she had read in the books; Anne Rice had always made it sound so romantic but actually watching it in front of you was a totally different story. Yeah, the victim had been chasing her and trying to kill her but still, all that blood. The man looked human to her but little did she know the thing that was inside of the man had temporarily polluted his blood and every part to him to make him vile and a thing of destruction and violence.

Pulling his face up to look at her he stood to his feet the body dropping as he helped her stand. "Are you okay?" he asked as she tucked her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Are you a vampire?" She asked wiping the blood from her nose that fell in droplets from when the now crumpled man hit her a few short minutes ago.

"Guess you're okay then." He murmured inspecting her body for fatal wounds, finding none, just a few scratches. "Do you need to go to a hospital or anything?" He asked looking like he was in a panic, like he had elsewhere to be.

"No, I'm okay…what did you do to that guy?" She asked panting, her breath coming back to her. She looked distressed but then again so did he.

"He wasn't human anymore…forget everything you've seen here today, just go home…You're safe." He said slicking back his hair.

She walked close towards him, grateful for the assist "Safe, have you looked outside, have you turned on a TV, we're anything but safe. It's almost as if I've forgotten the word. Will things be okay? Will the world be okay?"

He shook his head, his shoulders moving slightly upwards as if he was trying to shrug "I honestly don't know, but what I do know is that you're safest in your house than out here."

He turned around and suddenly looked powerful, he felt powerful too. He rid his mind of everything that was making him weak, his personal life and the world's dilemma. Pestilence had killed hundreds of thousands of people and it could have been classified as a modern day plague but things were better for the last couple of days, Bobby thought it to be resulting from Michael's arrival.

The young girl smiled, silver metallic gleaming in her mouth from her braces. "How can I thank you if I don't even know your name?" She asked as she picked up her purse from the ground, the pink now stained a crimson color from the massacre.

"Sam, Sam Winchester." He muttered turning his back. Hearing a tiny whispered "_thank you  
_ he kept going, the future needing to be changed as soon as possible, time was running out for everyone and Michael wasn't going to help.

* * *

Sitting in a bar the alcohol ran out quickly, the crystal glasses in front of her empty, barren like the field in front of Bobby's place. She was no longer in South Dakota, she had traveled back to Fillmore for a last hurrah but she did not have anything to celebrate. Clinking the glasses together she munched on stale pretzels as she kept from looking everyone in the eye, she couldn't bear it, she felt like they would know she had failed yet again. How could she redeem herself of all the bad things she had done if she had nothing to do, and no one to save. Of course there were all the others waiting for her out there who needed help but she had lost Dean and she needed him back. He was the one person she could talk freely to, about everything that had happened in her life and in hell and now he was submissive to a different being.

Why had he said yes? She wondered but then again she knew if she had been in his place she would have done the same thing. He had given up but he had every right to with everything that he had gone through, although she did not know the Winchesters much at all she knew he was dealing with the weight on the world literally on his shoulders and it was too much.

Her eyes caught the bartenders and he saw something hollow and vulnerable inside of her, instead of going over to her to ask her if she wanted another beer he veered away, cutting her off, knowing she did not need what was in that bottle.

She silently thanked the man and got up from the bar, her body filled with liquid and the feeling crushing her bladder. She had chosen the wrong night to fuck up because tomorrow, tomorrow she was going to face the thing she was scared of for so many years.

* * *

Thrashing violently inside of Michael, Dean cursed the walls that enclosed him, problem was, it was his own body and he knew he had made a mistake when he realized Michael's plans. The thing with sharing a body with someone, working as their vessel, he could see everything Michael had planned and he didn't like it one bit. Some things he knew already but there were others that were detrimental to society and he needed to tell Sam right away but he was stuck. Stuck in something he had signed up for, willingly.

"This is what you wanted Dean." Michael murmured washing the flesh that was not his, the soap cascading down his body.

"_Not this, I thought you were supposed to be good or whatever, well better than the fucking devil and now, you know what… It looks like you're playing on his team." _

Michael rolled his eyes as he grabbed the shampoo from the corner of the shower "Dean…everything is shades of gray, I'm doing what I have to. You cannot see clearly now."

"_Not this, this is just too fucking terrible. I think you're the one who isn't seeing clearly, you've been blinded so you can't see the people that are really your friends. Is this really what your brothers want of you?" _

Pausing Michael shrugged "I do what I have to, what I see down the road and I don't think about everyone else, they stop me again and again for reaching my true potential. I know what I have to do just as you knew what you had to do when you went to hell for Sam although I really wished you hadn't…then I wouldn't be here right now would I? Sam wouldn't have turned to Ruby, Sam wouldn't have started the demon diet and Sam wouldn't have started the apocalypse but I guess it all would have happened anyway because that's fate. You being here, me being your vessel, that's fate too, and to be clear, I don't have friends, I have acquaintances. There is a difference and I am aware of it."

"_What about Cas?" _

"Castiel will be punished when the time comes." Michael murmured settling his hands on a towel. He did not like that he still had to do routines that humans had to do, he was better than that.

"_By who?" _

Michael sighed, the towel wrapped around his waist as he stared at himself, his vessel in the full length mirror. "By whoever gets to him first..."

* * *

Two wooden doors opened and an American flag quilt stitched to a wall that looked like it was made of felt welcomed her. She walked forward through an office with telephones on desks that did not ring. Everything was silent on a weekend; no kids were to be seen. She hoped that the school, her old high school was completely empty so she would not be disturbed. Tucking her lock pick back into the deep pockets of her jeans she let her hands run over the brick walls, enjoying the little sand feeling between the cracks of cement.

Walking the halls of the place she graduated from years ago a chill went down her spine. She hadn't been to school in a long time but it still gave her an eerie feeling that couldn't be described.

Spotting the courtyard that was in the middle of the school through the spotted glass she pressed her face to it with a sigh. This was it.

Pulling open the door she found the same willow tree that she had stood under years ago and pressed her fingers against its bark looking at the imprint of her name scratched upon it. There were many names under that tree and little yellow flowers grew in that spot, it used to be a crossroads but the school was built on top of it. Each name was from a person that had met the demon and were now since gone. Reaching into the hole in the tree, her fist the only thing fitting inside of it, she reached for the trinkets and was relieved that they were still there. This wouldn't be a lost cause.

Reaching in her pocket she took out a picture of herself at graduation that she had gotten from the main office in the yearbooks they had lined up on the shelves and placed it inside the tree. Taking her hand out she thought it was weird that there were no bugs or animals living on the tree. It was desolate.

"Looking for critters?" A voice boomed from behind her.

Turning around she faced a blonde woman in a school girl uniform. She was busty and her breasts nearly popped the buttons off the blouse she was wearing. A tie was around her neck but she wore it more like a scarf than a tie. Her hair was in loose curls and framed her face and her skirt barely reached her knees. She looked the same. Vanessa let her arms fall to her side and smiled softly.

"I already found one, you."

The blonde laughed and her eyes flashed red. "You think you're so clever but if you were, you wouldn't be coming to see me. So… one man wasn't enough? Are you here to kill a second? Maybe an uncle who couldn't keep his hands to himself? Sound familiar?" She asked with a devious smirk. Her grin large like The Joker's from Batman.

Vanessa bit her lip to keep from crying, not wanting the memories of her foster father brought up. She was strong, but some things still rubbed her the wrong way. Being molested as a child was the last thing she wanted to remember. She was here for something else. "Very funny…no I'm here for something else."

"You're always trying to help people…first your foster brothers and sisters and now who? But then again you weren't always helping people, there was a time you came to me and we played together. Hurt a lot of people, we had a good time, right? It's funny too because you didn't even know it was me, you were so close to my true form, inches away and you couldn't even feel me out. I'm disappointed." She murmured.

"I missed you Vanessa." She hissed, slithering like a seductive snake towards Vanessa. She was the snake in the Garden of Eden.

"Shucks, I can't say the same." Vanessa growled softly as she turned the tables and walked around the demon in circles, like a hunter admiring its prey.

"What do you want this time?" The blonde asked looking at her nails as if she were about to file them.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………."I've come to make a deal."


	19. Oh my Gaud

"What, you afraid someone's got an itch they can't scratch and will need you for it again? Cuz sweetie, not to break your little heart but you ain't god's gift or anything. I've seen better, Kinda like this skin I'm wearing." The demon said with a scoff knowing exactly what points to put pressure on.

Vanessa almost laughed out loud as her eyes snapped towards the demon "Take it back to Gossip Girl princess. I'm not scared of you and you need me more than I need you. This is your job and I doubt a lot of people are coming to see you on summer vacation, even the summer school kids would rather roll joints than make wishes to some stripper bimbo."

The demon looked away, she was trying to look intimidating but it wasn't working. Vanessa Drake was right, damn how she was right. "Fine."

"Fine you'll help me?" Vanessa asked looking more perky and attentive as she waited for the demon's answer.

"Help you, who said anything about helping, don't make it sound so…desperate." The demon muttered finding vulnerability within herself.

"That's what you are, isn't it?" Vanessa murmured watching the schoolyard demon's outfit melt into a pineapple colored frock. She was getting more vulnerable by the second.

The demon turned her head, her neck almost turning like an owl as she made a sort of getaway. "I am not desperate, I am doing my job, now what is it you want of me?!" She growled in defiance, defying every emotion Vanessa was radiating and making it bounce off of her own body.

"I wish the Dean had never said yes to Michael. I want to give him a second chance."

The demon doubled over with what looked like pain but she then began to laugh maniacally, Vanessa was not surprised, it wasn't a typical wish.

"If that's what you want it can easily be done, not like I have to do a lot of manipulation or anything, just a simple time shift, what one day? Two? Easy as pie but it will cost you." The blonde said as she munched on a lollipop, hitting the tootsie roll center.

Vanessa stepped into the shadows, veering away from the weeping tree, the one thing in the area that they stood that made sense to her. It was weeping because innocent people were going to hell and now so was she, again.

"Your soul."

* * *

His chest felt hollowed out and the rims of his eyes were a deep shade of red. They looked as if a bushel of baby spiders had hatched upon his eyes leaving red little branches on the whites of his eyes. He felt strong and powerful but this time he felt guilty, even more so than ever before. It was strange how without Dean Sam felt even more pain but then in a sense he felt strong because he knew what he had to do. He had to kill pestilence.

He knew killing pestilence wouldn't bring Dean back but he had no choice, not now, not after everything. Every day things were getting worse; the world seemed to be crumbling into itself. It felt like everywhere around the world things were falling apart, it was like a mirror with tiny cracks in it, not shattering but barely being held together. Sam needed to trap Pestilence like a ship in a bottle and he needed to make sure no one would pop off the cork.

Sam walked through a field of gray, it was a field of gray because all the plant life was dead and had wilted to the ground. It looked as if the branches were kneeling to him although he knew the leaves of the trees had been dead for quite some time. The gray came from the sky, deep dark clouds that seemed to penetrate all the way to the ground, it had been this way for a long while and everyone was getting sick of it, everyone who was still alive that was.

The death toll may have seen exaggerated but it really wasn't. More people had died and had been turned into demons than any other time in the 21st century, it was time to put a stop to this and it started with this moment.

From behind him came a familiar face, Sam Winchester did not turn around, he was not eager to, especially because the words were not supportive ones.

"What you are doing is wrong Sam. You must trust me; no good can come from this."

The voice was Castiel's and he was not happy but at least he was not injured anymore.

Sam rolled his eyes and finally turned his body to meet the trench coat wearing angel. "I'm not concerned with what you think Cas. I don't see you for days and then you come to tell me what I'm doing is wrong? Well what do you suggest I do about all of this then?"

"It's far too late. I would have never had you drink more demon blood Sam, this is the wrong path and you know it." He muttered, hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"Well what other choice did I have Cas?! It's not like you or anyone else was showering me with ideas!" He growled a literal growl as he walked faster, the angel finding it hard to keep up.

"Dean wouldn't have wanted this for you Sam." Cas murmured trying to be the voice of reason where reason was not found.

"Well Dean isn't here." Sam growled back, the sky in unison with him as lightning blasted against the sky lighting up the field where they stood.

Cas paused letting Sam move further along, it was almost as if he was shocked by the words exiting Sam Winchester's mouth but he said nothing.

Moving faster, his strides longer, Cas had to run to keep up with Sam who looked giant in comparison to him.

"Sam…how do you know where you are going?" Castiel asked as he hurried along next to Sam.

"Drink enough demon blood you get a connection, kind of like a demon GPS. This would be helpful if the after effects didn't hurt so much."

Cas shuddered, knowing it only meant Sam was so close to being a demon if he could feel where they were all located.

"I do not like this." Cas said in a harsh tone that was rough it scratched his throat.

"No one likes this Cas but it's all I've got going for me." He said with a little hiss, a little wheeze as he kept on walking, knowing exactly where he was headed.

* * *

"_What you're doing, it isn't cool."_ Dean Winchester muttered the sounds echoing like vibrations inside of Michael's head.

"I am not trying to be "Cool" Dean I am trying to be reasonable." Michael said curling a thirty pound weight in his arm as he watched reruns of Cheers.

"_Says the man who watches sitcoms all day long."_ Dean muttered, his voice resembling that of a guttural growl from some kind of wild beast.

"I do not enjoy them Dean, it is simply because I have nothing else to do. I am simply waiting for the most opportune moment." He said confidently like he was an all knowing being.

He wasn't.

The most opportune moment would not come if it was up to Vanessa Drake.

* * *

Arriving at a mansion that looked like a remodeled plantation, Sam and Castiel joined forces. Even if Castiel did not support Sam's decision to drink demon blood in order to either freeze or get rid of Pestilence permanently he still felt the need to come along since Sam Winchester was his friend and he wasn't so sure Sam would not need backup.

"Sam…what are your plans once you infiltrate that mansion?" Castiel asked, his teeth clenched.

"I'm not planning on infiltrating anything Cas, I'm planning on knocking on the front door." Sam said in a strong determined voice. It only made sense she he had drank enough demon blood to feed an entire family of vampires.

He did just that. Walking to the front door he watched his hand collide with the clean smooth white paint that littered the front door's exterior. Waiting for answer Sam closed his eyes letting the demon blood take over, making him more pissed than he had ever been before. He was going to rip Pestilence apart with his bare hands.

Answering the door was two beefed up men wearing black suits, they looked like secret service men for the president and maybe they were but they were being used for evil, possessed by demons.

They looked at Sam and Castiel and it was like they instantly knew who they were. Turning around Sam and Castiel followed the men into the ballroom where Pestilence in her pants suit and grandma hair waited for them sitting on a chair, the back tall and gaudy. Everything about her was gaudy from the large diamonds stuck to her ears to the gold tacky bangles she wore around her wrists.

Getting rid of the demons in the men with nothing but a whisper Sam stood in front of Pestilence but she did not look scared, she looked calm, cool and collected and that worried Castiel.

* * *

"Sam needs help." Michael said out loud.

_Since when do you care about Sam? _

Michael scoffed, "I need him to become Lucifer and he can't do it if he's not close to the darkness. Pestilence has something up her sleeve and it's not as I want it."

_What are you going to do? _

"We're going to save your brother."


End file.
